时序表征的空间特性

The Spatial Character of Temporal Order Information

时间是个高度抽象的概念,必须依靠具体的、易感知的事物进行表征。时间表征本质上是隐喻性的,而时间的空间隐喻是时间隐喻表征的原型。受到数字空间表征研究的启示,发现时序表征同样具有空间特性。时序表征具有空间特性具有一定的普遍性,但是在具体的水平或垂直空间维度、"左-右"或"右-左"空间方向上存在一定的灵活性;此外时序能够导致空间注意的转移。

How do people represent things they can never see or touch？ Metaphoric mapping theory assumes that abstract concepts are represented in terms of concrete, readily available dimensions, such as space. Time is a very abstract and yet ubiquitous concept. Thus the research of the metaphorical representation of time is very important for understanding the process of time cognition. ＂ Time is Space＂ is the prototype of metaphorical form of time. It is well known that cognitive representation of numerals has spatial characteristics. People always respond to small numbers with left hand faster than with right hand, and to large numbers faster with right hand than with left hand, which is called the spatial-numeri- cal association of response codes （SNARC） effect. Similar SNARC effect, the congruity between spatial and temporal information along the inental time line ＂（ past-left and future-right mapping ） may facilitate manual responses, which yields the spatial-temporal associa- tion of response codes （STEARC） effect. The STEARC effect has been shown for several ordinal sequences, such as conventional tem- poral order, meaningful event sequences and newly learned ordered sequences. The STEARC effect has been demonstrated in various tasks. Several studies suggested that temporal concept is mentally aligned not only horizontally with a left-to-right directionality but also vertically with a top-to-bottom orientation. Native English speakers use the horizontal spatial metaphor primarily to express time, where- as those of Chinese also use the vertical metaphors. But the spatial direction of temporal order representation is flexible ： in cultures with left-to-right orthography（ e. g. , English-speaking cultures） time appears to flow rightward, but in cultures with right-to-left orthography （e. g. , Arabic-speaking cultures） time flows leftward. Reading direction and graphical conventions may influence the spatial direction of temporal order representation. Some evidence already points out the fact that at least some aspects of the spatialization of time are not universal and do indeed vary across cultures. However, new conceptual metaphors can be acquired by quick learning. Native English speakers who had just been briefly trained to talk about time using vertical terms produce results very similar to those of Chinese speakers. The temporal reference of words can orient spatial attention. Centrally presented words referring to the past and the future can orient the participants＇ visual attention and prime motor responses in correspondence with their habitual reading and writing direction. Finally, several future research directions were suggested. First, the neural mechanisms of spatial and temporal concept. Neuro-psychological studies have revealed that our temporal and spatial processes are related to the right parietal cortex, lateral intraparietal area, and left parietal cortex. Second, the human cognition of time can be divided into different ranges according to length of time. The association between time and space may differ with various time ranges. Third, spatial representation of time is different in different cultures of the world ; for example, the concept of time is quite special in China. The Chinese concept of time is circular, while Western concept of time is linear.