Article published in:
Conceptualizations of TimeEdited 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
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.06eik
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