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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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Back to the future?
T2 - The role of temporal focus for mapping time onto space
AU - Bylund, Emanuel
AU - Gygax, Pascal
AU - Samuel, Steven
AU - Athanasopoulos, Panos
N1 - 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/
PY - 2020/2/1
Y1 - 2020/2/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - conceptual metaphor
KW - cross-cultural
KW - gesture
KW - space
KW - Temporal focus
KW - time
U2 - 10.1177/1747021819867624
DO - 10.1177/1747021819867624
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 31315517
VL - 73
SP - 174
EP - 182
JO - Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)
JF - Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)
SN - 1747-0218
IS - 2
ER -