The Empirical Research Of Spatial-temporal Association Of Response Codes Effect

In recent years, digital processing mechanism and space representation hasbecome a hotspot in cognitive psychology researches. A large number of empiricalresearches show that digital coding has spatial characteristics, which is called Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect. They suggested that ithas a “mental number line”.Time is a concept which is very close to our life. It was found that time also havesequence characteristics in psychology researches. In the SNARC effect and mentalnumber line inspiration, a lot of researchers began to explore the space representationof time. They found that time also has the space characteristics. It has been examinedin an ever growing literature in cognitive psychology, which has confirmed theuniversality of the Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect.The existence of “mental time line” in space is proved.There were a series of disputes in the studies about STEARC effect and “mentaltime line”. Such as, are space characteristics of time representation solely inhorizontal axis? What about the longitudinal axis? And which one is dominant? Andso on.In this study, we explored whether Chinese speakers employ both the horizontaland vertical representation of time. If so, which kind of representations of time is first.The subjects of this study are undergraduates and postgraduates. The materials are thewords which meaning “past” or “future”, the number of words are32. The task was tojudge which one is the presented stimulus, the participants make different reactionaccording to the instruction. Experiment1and experiment2investigate whether theexistence of STEARC effect in horizontal or vertical axis. In experiment3, wediscussed the time representations and people will prefer to choosing which one byusing the response-discrimination paradigm.The results of the studies are as follow:(a) The Chinese speakers have timerepresentation in horizontal dimension and STEARC effect. Left represents past, andright represents future. The mental time line was from left to right;(b)Similarly, theSTEARC effect was also showed in vertical dimension, and the mental time line was from top to bottom;(c)Under the same conditions, time representation was both invertical and horizontal dimensions, and the latter is preferred.