Exploring spatiotemporal interactions: On the superiority of time over space

Space and time mutually influence each other such that space affects time estimation (space-on-time effect), and conversely (time-on-space effect). These reciprocal interferences suggest that space and time are intrinsically linked in the human mind. Yet, recent evidence for an asymmetrical advantage for space over time challenges the classical theoretical interpretation. In the present study, we tested whether the superiority of space over time in magnitude interference depends on the cognitive resources engaged in the spatial task. We conducted three experiments in which participants performed judgments on temporal intervals and spatial distances in separate blocks. In each trial, two dots were successively flashed at various locations, and participants were to judge whether the duration or distance between the dots was short or long. To manipulate cognitive demands in the spatial task, distances varied across experiments (highly discriminable for the non-demanding spatial task in Experiment 1 and scarcely discriminable for the demanding spatial task in Experiment 2). Importantly, this manipulation tended to enhance perceptual sensitivity (as indexed by Weber Ratios) but slowed down the decision process (as indexed by response times) in the demanding experiment. Our results provide evidence for robust space-on-time and time-on-space effects (Experiments 1 and 2). More crucially, the involvement of cognitive resources in a demanding spatial task causes a massive time-on-space effect: Spatial judgments are indeed more influenced by irrelevant temporal information than the reverse (Experiments 2 and 3). Overall, the flexibility of spatiotemporal interferences has direct theoretical implications and questions the origins of space-time interaction.