Article published in:
Conceptualizations of Time
Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
[Human Cognitive Processing 52] 2016
► pp. 103–122

The Mental Timeline During the Processing of Linguistic Information

There is ample evidence that people use spatial concepts to think and speak about time. Consistent with this notion, recent reaction time experiments have documented that the spatial coordinates of responses influence speeded decisions regarding temporal information. Specifically, classifying temporal linguistic information produces a space-time congruency effect on reaction time when responses with the left and right hand are arranged on the left-right axis. A similar effect can be observed for responses that consist of movements along the back-front axis. These findings are consistent with the view that time runs from left to right or from back to front. In the present article we review these results and assess the linguistic relevance of these two mental timelines for the comprehension of linguistic information at the word and sentence level.
Keywords: mental timeline, reaction time, comprehension, linguistic information processing, conceptual metaphor
Published online: 14 June 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.06eik
References

References

Balota, D.A.., et al.
2006 Visual Word Recognition: The Journey from Features to Meaning (a Travel Update). In M.J. Traxler & M.A. Gernsbacher (eds.) Handbook of Psycholinguistics (pp. 285–375). Amsterdam: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Barsalou, L.W.
2008 Grounded Cognition. Annual Review of Psychology 59, 617–645. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bender, A., & Beller, S.
2014 Mapping Spatial Frames of Reference onto Time: a Review of Theoretical Accounts and Empirical findings. Cognition 132, 342–382. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bergen, B.K., & Chan Lau, T.T.
2012 Writing Direction Affects how People Map Space onto Time. Frontiers in Psychology 3, 109. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boroditsky, L.
2000 Metaphoric Structuring: Understanding Time through Spatial Metaphors. Cognition 75, 1–28. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001 Does Language Shape Thought? Mandarin and English Speakers’ Conceptions of Time. Cognitive Psychology 43, 1–22. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Boroditsky, L.. et al.
2011 Do English and Mandarin Speakers Think about Time Differently? Cognition 118, 123–129. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Burr, D.. et al.
2007 Neural Mechanisms for Timing Visual Events are Spatially Selective in Real-world Coordinates. Nature Neuroscience 10, 423–425.Google Scholar
Casasanto, D.
2009 Embodiment of Abstract Concepts: Good and Bad in Right- and Left-handers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 138, 351–367. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Casasanto, D., & Boroditsky, L.
2008 Time in the Mind: Using Space to Think about Time. Cognition 106, 579–593. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Casasanto, D., & Bottini, R.
2014 Mirror Reading can Reverse the Flow of Time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, 437–479. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Casasanto, D.. et al.
2010 Space and Time in the Child’s Mind: Evidence for a Cross-dimensional Asymmetry. Cognitive Science 34, 387–405. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clark, H.H.
1973 Space, Time, and the Child. In T.E. Moore (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language (pp. 27–63). New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cooperrider, K., & Núñez, R.
2009 Across Time, Across the Body: Transversal Temporal Gestures. Gesture 9, 181–206. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Corallo, G.. et al.
2008 Limits on Introspection: Distorted Subjective Time During the Dual-Task Bottleneck. Psychological Science 19, 1110–1117. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Groot, A.M.B.. et al.
1986 Primed-lexical Decision: the Effect of Varying the Stimulus-onset Asynchrony of Prime and Target. Acta Psychologica 61, 17–36. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dehaene, S.. et al.
1993 The Mental Representation of Parity and Number Magnitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 122, 371–396. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de la Fuente, J.. et al.
2014 When you Think about It, your Past is in front of You: how Culture Shapes Spatial Conceptions of Time. Psychological Science 25, 1682–1690. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
de Sousa, H.
2012 Generational Differences in the Orientation of Time in Cantonese Speakers as a Function of Changes in the Direction of Chinese Writing. Frontiers in Psychology 3, 255. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eikmeier, V.. et al.
2013 Dimensional Overlap Between Time and Space. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 20, 1120–1125. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eikmeier, V., & Ulrich, R.
2012a The Influence of Spatial Priming on Processing of Time-related Words. Paper presented at the 54. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen, Mannheim, Germany.Google Scholar
2012b Priming the Mental Timeline: do Spatial Primes Influence the Processing of Time-related Words? Paper presented at Time and Temporality in Language and Human Experience (TimeLing), Łódź, Poland.
Emmorey, K.
2001 Space on Hand: the Exploitation of Signing Space to Illustrate Abstract Thought. In M. Gattis (ed.), Spatial Schemas and Abstract Thought (pp. 147–174). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Evans, V.
2006 The Structure of Time: Language, Meaning, and Temporal Cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fiedler, K.
2011 Voodoo Correlations are Everywhere – Not Only in Neuroscience. Perspectives on Psychological Science 6, 163–171. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, T.J.
(ed.) 1966 The Voices of Time: A Cooperative Survey of the Man’s View of Time as Expressed by the Sciences and the Humanities. New York: George Braziller.Google Scholar
Fuhrman, O., & Boroditsky, L.
2010 Cross-cultural Differences in Mental Representations of Time: Evidence from an Implicit Nonlinguistic Task. Cognitive Science 34, 1430–1451. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fuhrman, O.. et al.
2011 How Linguistic and Cultural Forces Shape Conceptions of Time: English and Mandarin Time in 3D. Cognitive Science 35, 1305–1328. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gentner, D.. et al.
2002 As Times Goes by: Evidence for Two Systems in Processing Space – Time Metaphors. Language and Cognitive Processes 17, 537–565. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Glenberg, A.M., & Kaschak, M.P.
2002 Grounding Language in Action. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 9, 558–565. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Graf, E.M.
2006 The Ontogenetic Development of Literal and Metaphorical Space in Language. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Grondin, S.
2001 From Physical Time to the First and Second Moments of Psychological Time. Psychological Bulletin 127, 22–44. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hartmann, M., & Mast, F.W.
2012 Moving Along the Mental Time Line Influences the Processing of Future Related Words. Consciousness and Cognition 21, 1558–1562. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Haspelmath, M.
1997 From Space to Time: Temporal Advervials in the World’s Languages. München: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Klein, W.
2009 Concepts of Time. In W. Klein & P. Li (eds.), The Expression of Time (pp. 5–38). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kong, F., & You, X.
2012 Space-time Compatibility Effects in the Auditory Modality. Experimental Psychology 59, 82–87. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lachmair, M.. et al.
2011 Root versus Roof: Automatic Activation of Location Information During Word Processing. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 18, 1180–1188. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lakens, D.. et al.
2011 The Sound of Time: Cross-modal Convergence in the Spatial Structuring of Time. Consciousness and Cognition 20, 437–443. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M.
1980 Metaphors we Live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Libet, B.
2004 Mind Time: the Temporal Factor in Consciousness. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Havard University Press.Google Scholar
Mandler, G.
1992 Toward a Theory of Consciousness. In G. Hans-Georg, et al. (eds.), Cognition, Information Processing, and Psychophysics: Basic Pssues (pp. 43–65). Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawerence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
McGlone, M.S., & Harding, J.L.
1998 Back (or Forward?) to the Future: The Role of Perspective in Temporal Language Comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition 24, 1211–1223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Miles, L.K.. et al.
2010 Moving Through Time. Psychological Science 21, 222–223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Núñez, R., & Cooperrider, K.
2013 The Tangle of Space and Time in Human Cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 17, 220–229. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Núñez, R.E., & Sweetser, E.
2006 With the Future Behind Them: Convergent Evidence from Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time. Cognitive Science 30, 401–450. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ouellet, M.. et al.
2012 A Multisensory Interaction Effect in the Conceptual Realm of Time. Experimental Psychology 59, 236–242. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Thinking about the Future Moves Attention to the Right. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 36, 17–24. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Is the Future the Right Time? Experimental Psycholology 57, 308–314. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pashler, H., & Harris, C.R.
2012 Is the Replicability Crisis Overblown? Three Arguments Examined. Perspectives on Psychological Science 7, 531–536. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Radden, G.
2004 The Metaphor TIME AS SPACE Across Languages. In N. Baumgarten, et al. (eds.), Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Spracherwerb und Sprachvermittlung – das Leben mit mehreren Sprachen: Festschrift für Juliane House zum 60. Geburtstag (pp. 225–239). Bochum: Aks-Verlag.Google Scholar
Raposo, A.. et al.
2009 Modulation of Motor and Premotor Cortices by Actions, Action Words and Action Sentences. Neuropsychologia 47, 388–396. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Richards, M.M., & Hawpe, L.S.
1981 Contrasting Patterns in the Acquisition of Spatial/temporal Terms. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 32, 485–512. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rolke, B.. et al.
2013 Priming the Mental Time-line: Effects of Modality and Processing Mode. Cognitive Processing 14, 231–244. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, R.
1979 The File Drawer Problem and Tolerance for Null Results. Psychological Bulletin 86, 638–641. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Santiago, J.. et al.
2007 Time (also) Flies from Left to Right. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 14, 512–516. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2011 Flexible Foundations of Abstract Thought: a Review and a Theory. In A. Mass & T.W. Schubert (eds.), Spatial dimensions of social thought (pp. 41–109). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 In Hindsight, Life Flows from Left to Right. Psychological Research 74, 59–70. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sell, A.J., & Kaschak, M.P.
2011 Processing Time Shifts Affects the Execution of Motor Responses. Brain and Language 117, 39–44. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Simon, J.R., & Rudell, A.P.
1967 Auditory S-R Compatibility: The Effect of an Irrelevant Cue on Information Processing. Journal of Applied Psychology 51, 300–304. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Simonsohn, U.. et al.
2014 P-curve: A Key to the File-drawer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, 534–547. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sternberg, S.
2001 Separate modifiability, mental modules, and the use of pure and composite measures to reveal them. Acta Psychologica 106, 147–246. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M.C.
2007 The Evolution of Foresight: What is Mental Time Travel, and is it Unique to Humans? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30, 299–351. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2010 Behavioural Evidence for Mental Time Travel in Nonhuman Animals. Behavioural Brain Research 215, 292–298. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Talmy, L.
1988 Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition. Cognitive Science 12, 49–100. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Torralbo, A.. et al.
2006 Flexible Conceptual Projection of Time onto Spatial Frames of Reference. Cognitive Science 30, 745–757. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Traugott, E.C.
1978 On the Expression of Spatio-temporal Relations in Language. In J.H. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Human Language: Word Structure (pp. 369–400). Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tse, C.-S., & Altarriba, J.
2008 Evidence Against Linguistic Relativity in Chinese and English: A Case Study of Spatial and Temporal Metaphors. Journal of Cognition and Culture 8, 335–357. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, B.. et al.
1991 Cross-cultural and Developmental Trends in Graphic Productions. Cognitive Psychology 23, 515–557. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ulrich, R.. et al.
2012 With the Past Behind and the Future Ahead: Back-to-front Representation of Past and Future Sentences. Memory and Cognition 40, 483–495. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ulrich, R., & Maienborn, C.
2010 Left-right Coding of Past and Future in Language: The Mental Timeline During Sentence Processing. Cognition 117, 126–138. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Walker, E.J.. et al.
2014 Disentangling Spatial Metaphors for Time Using Non-spatial Responses and Auditory Stimuli. Metaphor and Symbol 29, 316–327. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weger, U.W., & Pratt, J.
2008 Time Flies Like an Arrow: Space-time Compatibility Effects Suggest the Use of a Mental Timeline. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 15, 426–430. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Weissenborn, J.
1988 Von der demonstratio ad oculos zur Deixis am Phantasma: Die Entwicklung der lokalen Referenz bei Kindern. In A. Eschbach (ed.), Karl Bühler’s theory of language (pp. 257–276). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Zwaan, R.A.
., & Rapp, D.N. 2006 Discourse Comprehension. In M.J. Traxler & M.A. Gernsbacher (eds.), Handbook of Psycholinguistics (pp. 725–764). San Diego: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar