| 其他摘要 | A number of studies have found that there is a cognitive connection between spatial and temporal concepts, and people map single-dimensional temporal concepts onto a three-dimensional spatial axis. Different from the lateral or vertical axis, the representation of temporal concepts on the sagittal axis is complex and flexible. Early researchers argued that spatial-temporal metaphorical expressions in language affect people to map spatial-temporal concepts on the sagittal axis of thinking. However, this view does not explain well the influence of factors other than linguistic factors. In recent years, some researchers have explained people's diverse mapping association based on the "Temporal Focus Hypothesis". However, it is still unclear how different temporal focus play a role in the processing of temporal concepts, and few researchers have comparatively analyzed the interaction between temporal focus and spatial-temporal metaphorical expressions in the processing of temporal concepts. To address these issues, this paper proposed to use two studies to examine the effects of temporal focus on native Chinese speakers' processing of temporal concepts on the sagittal axis, and to provide further experimental evidence to investigate the origin of sagittal temporal mapping.
Study 1 consisted of two behavioral experiments and one EEG experiment, using a temporal concept judgment task based on "stimulus-response" compatibility and "stimulus-stimulus" compatibility to compare the responses of participants with different temporal focus in processing non-metaphorical temporal words on the sagittal axis. The results showed that individuals with future focus responded faster to the "Future-front, Past-back" conditions and induced stronger P300 components in the "Past-front" condition, which showing the "Future-front, Past-back" implicit temporal mapping. In addition, the degree of focus on different time points also influences individuals' mapping tendencies. The more individuals pay attention to the future, the stronger the tendency of "Future-front, Past-back" mapping will be, and conversely, the tendency of "Past-front, Future-back" mapping will be. These results suggest that different temporal focus can explain people's temporal mapping tendencies in processing non-metaphorical temporal concepts, and that the degree of attention to different time points can predict the strength of people's temporal mapping tendencies.
Study 2 further examined the interaction between temporal focus and spatial-temporal metaphorical linguistic expressions through two behavioral experiments and analyzed the effect of manipulating the activation of different temporal focuses on people's processing of metaphorical expressions and non-metaphorical expressions of temporal concepts. The results of Experiment 4 revealed that people showed a tendency to "Past-front" mapping when processing metaphorical temporal concepts regardless of their temporal focus. In Experiment 5, future-focused subjects who were guided to focus on the past or future did not show a significant temporal mapping tendency. However, individuals who were guided to focus on the past showed a "Past-front" mapping when processing non-metaphorical temporal words. These suggest that temporal focus may play a minor or irrelevant role in people's processing of metaphorical temporal concepts, but a change in temporal focus can directly affect people's mapping tendency to process non-metaphorical temporal concepts, and the two are causally related.
In summary, this paper combined the results of the above five experiments and concluded that there may be a dual mapping system in people's processing of temporal concepts. When people process non-metaphorical temporal concepts, temporal focus plays an important role in people's processing, causing future一focused individuals to exhibit a "Future-front, Past-back" spatial-temporal mapping, while past-focused individuals exhibit a "Past-front, Future-back" spatial-temporal mapping. When people process metaphorical temporal concepts, the metaphorically-guided "Past-front, Future-back" association is the main reason that influences people's spatial-temporal mapping, and the temporal focus plays only a minor role in it. This finding provides empirical support for exploring the origins of people's sagittal temporal mappings and for constructing a unified theoretical interpretation framework. |
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