The Horizontal And The Vertical Mental Timeline In Chinese Context

Previous studies have shown that mapping of time is represented along horizontal axis. Ithas been shown that, compared to English speakers, Mandarin speakers were more likely tothink about time vertically (top to down) than horizontally (left to right). Time is expressedboth horizontally and vertically in Chinese Context. In this study, we examined whetherMardarin speakers employ both the horizontal and vertical representation of time, if so, whichkind of representations of time is dominant.We modified the response-discrimination paradigm employed by Ansorge and Wühr(2004). Participants were asked to categorized words presented centrally as referring to thepast or to the future by pressing numerical keys with the index finger of the right hand.Experiment1was conducted with a2(discrimination: discriminating/non-discriminating)×2(response dimension: horizontal/vertical)×2(STEARC compatibility: compatible/incompatible) within-subject design, to examine whether the time was represented spatiallyboth in horizontal and in vertical dimensions. Response keys, located on the lower left (key1),the lower right (key3), the upper-left (key7) or the upper-right (key9) positions of thenumerical keyboard, were aligned in either the horizontal or the vertical dimensions. Withinthe horizontal dimension, participants only selected between upper left and upper right orbetween lower left and lower right. Likewise, for the vertical dimension, participants onlyselected between upper-left and lower-left or selected between upper-right and lower-right.Experiment2was conducted with a2(response location: left-diagonal/right-diagonal)×2(STEARC compatibility: compatible/incompatible) within-subject design, to study how thetwo spatial representations interact. Response keys were assigned in a left-diagonal(lower-right and upper-left) and a right-diagonal (lower-left and upper-right) axes, such thatboth the horizontal and the vertical direction were manipulated. In both Experiment1andExperiment2, the dependent variable was the response time of the participants in pushing thekeys.In Experiment1, a STEARC effect was shown in discriminating horizontal dimension.Response was faster with “left-past, right-future” association, than “left-future, right-past”association, but not in the vertical dimension. Similarly, a STEARC effect was also shown inthe discriminating vertical dimension (faster responses with “top-past, bottom-future”, than “top-future, bottom-past”), but not in the horizontal dimension. In Experiment2, for theresponses to upper-left vs. bottom-right, a STEARC effect was observed in both thehorizontal and the vertical dimension. For responses for bottom-left vs. upper-right, aSTEARC effect was observed in the horizontal dimension. The results indicate the horizontalrepresentation is advantageous. A K–S test showed that the distribution of effect sizes wasnormal, which suggests two spatial representations of time affected each other.In conclusion, Mandarin speakers possess both horizontal and vertical mental timeline.The horizontal mental timeline is dominant for representations of time. The present resultssuggest that Chinese linguistic and cultural experience, such as left to right writing/readingdirection could play an important role in mental mapping of time.