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Temporal Ordering of Dynamic Expression Data from Detailed Spatial Expression Maps
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The categorical use of a continuous time representation
Alessia Beracci1, Julio Santiago2, Marco Fabbri3
1Department of Psychology, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Viale Ellittico 31, 81100, Caserta, CE, Italy. alessia.beracci@unicampania.it.
Psychological Research
|July 22, 2021
Summary
The mental timeline is a continuous representation, not just a categorical past/future distinction. This spatial-temporal association of response codes (STEARC) effect shows how we map time onto space.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Time is abstractly conceptualized as a spatial line, typically with the past on the left and the future on the right.
- Existing research suggests time representation might be categorical (past vs. future) rather than strictly continuous.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the continuous versus categorical nature of the mental timeline representation.
- To examine the influence of spatial cues on temporal judgments.
Main Methods:
- Italian participants performed temporal judgment tasks on 20 temporal expressions.
- Experiments involved varying word presentation positions (center, left, right) and text orientation (mirror-reversed).
- Participants mapped expressions onto a 10-cm line, with response times recorded.
Main Results:
- A significant Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect was observed, consistent with left-right spatial mapping of time.
- The STEARC effect's strength was independent of the temporal expression's screen position.
- A Distance effect emerged, with slower responses for temporally closer words compared to more distant ones.
Conclusions:
- The mental timeline functions as a continuous representation.
- This continuous representation can be utilized categorically when tasks demand explicit past versus future discrimination.
- Spatial-temporal associations in response codes are robust, regardless of specific spatial presentation.
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