The effect of temporal concept on the automatic activation of spatial representation: From axis to plane

He, Dexian; He, Xianyou; Lai, Siyan; Wu, Shuang; Wan, Juan; Zhao, Tingting

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2018.06.020

Cited by 7 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The main result, for the purpose of the present study, was that the different time categories were represented along both horizontal (from left to right) and vertical (from bottom to top) axes (and this result pattern was mainly observed for zones of time). However, the choice to use a page or screen, in which both horizontal and vertical (as well as both diagonal axes) are present, does not allow us to investigate how the temporal stimuli are represented along the vertical dimension, THE VERTICAL MENTAL TIME LINE considering the contrasting results in terms of the superiority of the horizontal spatial-temporal association compared to the vertical spatial-temporal association (Boroditsky, 2001;Casasanto & Bottini, 2014;Chen, 2007;He et al, 2018). Thus, in the present study, we used a single vertical line, and this choice could increase the possibility of adopting a vertical dimension in representing time.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Past on the ground floor and future in the attic: The vertical mental timeline.

Beracci¹,

Fabbri²

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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Time is represented along a horizontal mental line with an association between the past (or short duration) and left space as well as between the future (or long duration) and right space. A possible vertical time representation is also supposed to exist, even if results are contradictory depending on the stimuli and response keys used. The aim of the present study was to test the presence of a vertical representation of temporal expressions, overcoming possible methodological limits. In Experiment 1, 167 Italian students had to categorize 20 Italian temporal expressions that appeared at the center of the screen with two analogous vertical response keys ("down" and "up" arrows of a regular keyboard). Specifically, in Experiment 1A participants pressed the down arrow with their left hand and the up arrow with their right hand, whereas in Experiment 1B the key-hand assignment was reversed. In Experiment 2, 25 participants underwent the same procedure using a vertically positioned response box. The same participants also performed a Time-to-Position task, in which they located temporal expressions along a vertical line. In both experiments, a space-time interaction was found, with an association between past expressions and the bottom (or down arrow) response key as well as between future expressions and the top (or up arrow) key. The results suggest a bottom-to-top mapping of time representation, according to the "more-is-up" metaphor. Public Significance StatementThe present study suggests that a vertical mental timeline representation exists, showing a space--time association from bottom to top. This mental representation is probably influenced by the daily life experience of verticality in the physical world, such as the construction of a building from the ground floor to the attic, according to the "more-is-up" metaphor. The results were confirmed using both an analogous and a literal concept of verticality in a temporal judgment task, and this bottomto-top representation of time was not influenced by the hand used to press the response button. Moreover, we confirmed not only that the past was associated with the bottom space and the future was associated with the top space, but also that the temporal expressions used in this study showed an ordinal pattern when participants performed a Time-to-Position task. Therefore, we can conclude that, even if temporal expressions do not refer to fixed moments in time, they occupy a specific position on the mental timeline with a "specific order."

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Past on the ground floor and future in the attic: The vertical mental timeline.

Beracci¹,

Fabbri²

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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“…The up–down spatial metaphor not only can be used to represent time, power, and morality, but also social status and emotion. Time can also be represented through different perspectives, such as self-movement or object movement, or by different spatial schemata, such as up–down, left–right, and front–back (e.g., Boroditsky, 2000 , 2018 ; Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008 ; Fuhrman et al, 2011 ; Gu and Zhang, 2012 ; Hong et al, 2017 ; Li and Zhang, 2017 ; He D. et al, 2018 ). The activation of multiple metaphorical representations is influenced by contextual information, and only the metaphorical representations that best fit the current situation will be activated (Torralbo et al, 2006 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paradigm introduces visual spatial attention as an indicator of automatic activation of the perceptive motion system. Previous studies have used similar paradigms to determine the metaphorical relationship among abstract concepts, such as morality, social status, power, generation, and time, and spatial concepts (e.g., Meier and Robinson, 2004;Zanolie et al, 2012;Ijzerman et al, 2013;Wang and Lu, 2013;Wu and Wang, 2014;He D. et al, 2018). In addition, we also referenced and combined the research procedures of Sell and Kaschak (2011) and Walker et al (2017).…”

Section: Research Paradigm Of Spatial Metaphormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The same abstract concept can also be represented by multiple concrete concepts. For example, time can be represented by ego- and time-moving metaphors, and time can also be represented by spatial patterns such as up–down, left–right, front–back, and plane (e.g., Boroditsky, 2000 , 2018 ; Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008 ; Boroditsky et al, 2011 ; Fuhrman et al, 2011 ; Gu and Zhang, 2012 ; Laudau, 2016 ; Hong et al, 2017 ; Li and Zhang, 2017 ; Walker et al, 2017 ; He D. et al, 2018 ). He et al ( 2015 ) found that Han and Moso kin terms for the different generations could be represented by the up–down metaphor, but only Moso kin terms for the same generation could be represented by part of the left–right metaphor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Three-Dimensional Spatial Metaphorical Representation of Generation Implied in Han Kin Terms

Jijia

Zhang

2021

Front. Psychol.

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concepts can be represented in the brain by means of metaphors. Generation refers to seniority in the family or clan, implies the implementation of different attitudes required by kinship, and contains profound psychological, emotional, and social factors. Generation as an abstract concept is related to concepts such as power, social status, importance, and time. The conceptual metaphor theory based on the embodied theory proposes that abstract concepts are represented by actual sensorimotor experiences. Generation implied in Han kin terms is often represented by multiple spatial terms. According to conceptual metaphor theory, the current study predicted that generation could be represented by multiple spatial metaphors. We designed six experiments to investigate this issue. The results showed that (1) the up–down and left–right positions in which kinship words were presented affected the processing of the concept of generation; (2) the processing of kinship words also affected up–down and left–right spatial information perception; and (3) the processing of the concept of generation could also automatically activate the front–back spatial operation and induce the embodied simulation of body movement. In sum, the results suggested that generation might be represented by the three-dimensional spatial metaphor of vertical, horizontal, and sagittal axes, which are influenced by the sensorimotor system.

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“…By using different stimulating materials, such as pictures (Fuhrman and Boroditsky, 2010), video (Santiago et al, 2010), duration (Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008;Ishihara et al, 2008;Coull et al, 2018;Isham et al, 2018), past or future time words or events (Santiago et al, 2007;Ouellet et al, 2010;Ding et al, 2015), actor names (Weger and Pratt, 2008) and auditory stimulus (Kong and You, 2012), they found that the left hand reacted more quickly to "past/short time/early events" and the right hand reacted more quickly to "future/long time/late events." Using eye movement as an indicator, subjects' eyes shifted to the left when thinking about the past and to the right when thinking about the future (Anelli et al, 2018;He et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Variability of Mental Timeline in Vertical Dimension

Jiang

et al. 2021

Front. Psychol.

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People often use concrete spatial terms to represent abstract time. Previous studies have shown that mental timeline (MTL) is represented along a horizontal axis. Studies of the mental timeline have demonstrated that compared with English speakers, Mandarin speakers are more likely to think about time vertically (up-down) than horizontally (left-right/front-back). Prior studies have suggested that MTL in the up and down dimensions originated from temporal-spatial metaphors in language. However, there are still a large number of perceptual experiences in the up and down dimensions, such as visual and sensorimotor experience. Then does the visual experience in daily life affect the MTL in the vertical dimension? This study is aimed to investigate whether visual experience can promote or activate the opposite direction of MTL from implicit and explicit levels. The results showed that when the time information in the task was not prominent, the direction of vertical MTL cannot be affected by ascending or descending perceptual experience. While when the time information was prominent, whether the task was implicit or explicit, compared with the control group, watching the top-down scene significantly increased the top-down direction selection, while in the implicit task, watching the bottom-up scene made the top-down MTL disappear. To the best of our knowledge, our study provides the first evidence that the flexibility of space–time associations in vertical dimension extends beyond explicit and embraces even implicit levels. This study shows that the vertical MTL is activated in certain conditions and could be affected by the visual experience.

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The effect of temporal concept on the automatic activation of spatial representation: From axis to plane

Cited by 7 publications

References 42 publications

Past on the ground floor and future in the attic: The vertical mental timeline.

Past on the ground floor and future in the attic: The vertical mental timeline.

A Three-Dimensional Spatial Metaphorical Representation of Generation Implied in Han Kin Terms

The Variability of Mental Timeline in Vertical Dimension

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