The vertical space–time association

Abstract

The space-time interaction suggests a left-to-right directionality in the mind’s representation of elapsing time. However, studies showing a possible vertical time representation are scarce and contradictory. In Experiment 1, 32 participants had to judge the duration (200, 300, 500 or 600 milliseconds) of the target stimulus that appeared at the top, centre, or bottom of the screen, compared to a reference stimulus (400 milliseconds) always appeared in the centre of the screen. In Experiment 2, 32 participants were administered with the same procedure, but the reference stimulus appeared at the top, centre, or bottom of the screen and the target stimulus was fixed in the centre location. In both experiments, a space-time interaction was found with an association between short durations and bottom response key as well as between long durations and top key. The evidence of a vertical mental timeline was further confirmed by the distance effect with a lower level of performance for durations close to that of the reference stimulus. The results suggest a bottom-to-top mapping of time representation, more in line with the metaphor “more is up”.

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

“…In a similar way, Ruiz Fernandéz and colleagues (2014) reported that participants were quicker to respond to a square positioned in the upper space when it was paired with a word referring to the future and faster in their response to a square positioned in the lower space when it was paired with a word that referred to the past, suggesting a bottom-to-top time representation. In a similar way, Beracci, Rescott, et al (2021) reported a bottom-to-top representation for temporal durations in the millisecond range, probably according to the more-is-up metaphor. Finally, several studies have reported that the past is mapped at the top and the future is mapped at the bottom (Boroditsky, 2001; He et al, 2018; Topić et al, 2021) in explicit and implicit tasks, suggesting an automatic activation of a temporal concept along a top-to-bottom orientation, reflecting the salience of the experience with falling objects (i.e., the law of gravity).…”

“…Thus, the vertical STEARC effect observed might reflect an association between past and left hand and between future and right hand, suggesting a transposition of the horizontal time representation (Bonato et al, 2012;Bottini & Casasanto, 2013;Fabbri et al, 2012Fabbri et al, , 2013aFabbri et al, , 2013bIshihara et al, 2008;Santiago et al, 2007;Torralbo et al, 2006;Vallesi et al, 2008;Weger & Pratt, 2008) into vertical space. Both spatio-anatomical (hand-based) and extracorporeal (location) hypotheses (see Viarouge et al, 2014 for a review about spatial reference frames involved in the SNARC effect) should be addressed for the vertical STEARC effect (but see Beracci, Rescott, et al, 2021 for preliminary results). In order to rule out this possibility, we performed the same experiment with the instruction that the right hand should be used to press the bottom key while the left hand should press the top key.…”

“…Thus, the STEARC effect supports the idea that humans represent time along a spatially oriented mental timeline or MTL (Beracci, Santiago, et al, 2021; Bonato et al, 2012; Di Bono et al, 2012; Ishihara et al, 2008; Weger & Pratt, 2008), from left to right or from right to left, in line with the cultural direction of reading and writing (Casasanto & Bottini, 2014; Chen, 2007; Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010; Pitt & Casasanto, 2020; Vallesi et al, 2011). The STEARC effect has also been found along the vertical axis (Beracci, Rescott, et al, 2021; Bergen & Chan Lau, 2012; Fuhrman & Boroditsky, 2010; Hartmann et al, 2014; He et al, 2018; Leone et al, 2018; Ruiz Fernandéz et al, 2014; Stocker et al, 2016; Topić et al, 2021; Woodin & Winter, 2018), suggesting either a bottom-to-top or a top-to-bottom time representation.…”

“…Thus, this separation between response device and motion (vertical) platform could explain the null effect on vertical time representation. Consequently, in the two different experiments of the present study, we used the directional (down/up) arrows (i.e., analogous representation of verticality; Experiment 1) and an external response box positioned vertically (i.e., literal concept of the term verticality; Experiment 2) in order to increase “the sense of verticality” of the response keys, thus overcoming this methodological limit of the previous studies (Beracci, Rescott, et al, 2021; Hartmann & Mast, 2012; Ishihara et al, 2008; Miles et al, 2011). In addition, the choice of using these response modalities could also provide a comparison of the analogous versus literal concept of vertical space (provided by the response keys) when observing (or not) the vertical representation of time.…”

“…However, other studies reported that the spatial–numerical association along the vertical axis was represented in terms of the specific spatial representation of the hands on the basis of the task setting/instruction created (e.g., Casasanto, 2009; Hartmann et al, 2014; Müller & Schwarz, 2007). Considering that this methodological issue was not controlled for in previous studies (but see Beracci, Rescott, et al, 2021 for this methodological issue) in which vertical space–time interaction was studied (Ishihara et al, 2008, asked all participants to press the bottom key with their left hand and the top key with their right key; Miles et al, 2011, asked participants to press the down/up keys with right hand fingers), we performed two versions of Experiment 1 modifying the hand-key assignments.…”