title: Can a mind have two time lines? Exploring space-time mapping in Mandarin and English speakers.
abstract: Spatial representations of time are a ubiquitous feature of human cognition. Nevertheless, interesting sociolinguistic variations exist with respect to where in space people locate temporal constructs. For instance, while in English time metaphorically flows horizontally, in Mandarin an additional vertical dimension is employed. Noting that the bilingual mind can flexibly accommodate multiple representations, the present work explored whether Mandarin-English bilinguals possess two mental time lines. Across two experiments, we demonstrated that Mandarin-English bilinguals do indeed employ both horizontal and vertical representations of time. Importantly, subtle variations to cultural context were seen to shape how these time lines were deployed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland, UK. lynden.miles@abdn.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lynden K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Grant D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Noble
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lumsden
authors.forename: C Neil
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Macrae
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D019303:Multilingualism; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D013028:Space Perception; D013998:Time Perception; D055815:Young Adult