Space-time perception of Mandarin Speakers: age, temporal-focus and contextual priming
Abstract
Research regarding the Temporal focus hypothesis has contributed to understanding space-time cognition. However, the relative influence of temporal focus, contextual priming, and age on implicit space-time mapping requires further investigation. Seventy-one Mandarin-speaking participants in Taiwan responded to either past or future-related questions, followed by the temporal diagram task and the temporal-focus questionnaire. Data were analyzed through chi-square and a three-way ANOVA. Results indicated a significant difference in front-back mapping between younger and older participants while not between the past and the future-primed conditions. Notably, most participants tended to locate future events in the front box. Furthermore, the ANOVA results revealed that past or future-focused statements and age significantly related to participants' temporal attitudes. The current study partially supports the temporal hypothesis; age is significantly related to Mandarin speakers' implicit space-time mapping and temporal focus, whereas the priming condition was insignificant.