空间-时间关联的中介共同表征结构:来自反转STEARC效应的证据

The intermediate common representation of space-time association:Evidence from the reversed STEARC effect

通过3个双任务实验(诱导任务和特征任务)探讨空间-时间联合编码(STEARC)效应的加工机制。实验1采用时间信息作为诱导任务材料,实验2采用空间信息作为诱导任务材料,在特征任务中都发现映射不一致组被试(看到过去/左侧刺激时按右键反应,看到未来/右侧刺激时按左键反应)出现反转STEARC效应,映射一致组被试表现出常规的STEARC效应,表明从时间信息加工到空间反应过程符合中介共同表征结构。实验3分离两种任务的反应方式(手动和眼动),发现不一致映射规则下,被试仍然表现出常规的STEARC效应,表明这种中介共同表征结构存在特定联结效应,即在不同反应器中出现时间和空间相互独立的表征结构。总体而言,研究支持空间-时间关联符合中介共同表征结构,并且这种关联中存在反应器特定联结效应。

Previous studies have suggested that the mental representation of time might be tightly linked with physical space. The time-space interaction has been reported as the preference to associate the past with the left space and the future with the right space, which is called the spatial-temporal association of respond codes （STEARC） effect. The present study investigated three possible cognitive mechanisms underlying the STEARC effect, a） Whether the space-time association is a direct representation that associated temporal/spatial information with the left/right spatial responses, b） Whether the representation of space-time association is intermediated by a common spatial code, the intermediate common code leads corresponding spatial responses, c） Whether the representation of space-time association is intermediated by a distinct code which in turn conducts the spatial responses. All of the three possible space-time representation mechanisms have their own evidence from previous studies. The purpose of the present study is to explore the cognitive mechanisms of spatial-temporal representation. Three experiments were designed according to the dual-task paradigm （spatial task： press the left or right key to judge the meaning of temporal words or the spatial location of squares, font task： judge whether the words were italicized）. Participants were asked to complete their judgment by manual （Exp.1 ＆ 2） or saccadic （Exp.3） responses. In both experiment 1 and experiment 2, participants were assigned randomly into two groups congruent group and incongruent group. In the congruent group, time-space association and response hand was congruent in spatial task and font task （left hand-past/left; right hand- future/right）. While the time-space association and response hand was incongruent in the incongruent group （left hand-future/right; right hand- past/left）. Experiment 1 investigated the influence of incongruent mappings in the font task on a concurrent STEARC task in which temporal information was completely irrelevant. Experiment 2 employed spatially incompatible mappings in a spatial compatibility task and investigated whether the location-to-response mappings also affected the spatial-temporal response associations. Experiment 3 investigated the specific associations that are responsible for the reversal of STEARC effect by means of dissociating the response modalities （saccadic and manual response） in the spatial and font task. Experiment 1 and experiment 2 found a reversal of STEARC effect in the incongruent group, which could only be interpreted in terms of the intermediate common representations of time and space association. And in experiment 3, participants under incongruent condition showed the STEARC effect, so that there was a specific association between the common representations of time and space. All of the results showed that the representation of the space-time association is intermediated by a common code, and there is a specific association between the common representation codes of time and space.