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    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, (2), 2019, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/qjp on SAGE Journals Online http://journals.sagepub.com/

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Back to the future?: The role of temporal focus for mapping time onto space

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<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/02/2020
<mark>Journal</mark>Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)
Issue number2
Volume73
Number of pages9
Pages (from-to)174-182
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date14/08/19
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Do we conceptualise the future as being behind us or in front of us? Although this question has traditionally been investigated through the lens of spatiotemporal metaphors, new impetus was recently provided by the Temporal-Focus Hypothesis. This hypothesis holds that the mapping of temporal concepts onto the front-back axis is determined by an individual's temporal focus, which varies as a function of culture, age, and short-term attention shifts. Here, we instead show that participants map the future on to a frontal position, regardless of cultural background and short-term shifts. However, one factor that does influence temporal mappings is age, such that older participants are more likely to map the future as behind than younger participants. These findings suggest that ageing may be a major determinant of space-time mappings, and that additional data need to be collected before concluding that culture or short-term attention do influence space-time mappings.

Bibliographic note

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, (2), 2019, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/qjp on SAGE Journals Online http://journals.sagepub.com/