title: Are past and future symmetric in mental time line?
abstract: A growing body of evidence has suggested that time, from early to late, or from past to future, was represented in a spatially oriented mental time line. However, little is known about its characteristics. The present study provided the first empirical evidence to explore the symmetry of spatial representations of past and future in the mental time line. Specifically, we compared the Spatial-Temporal Association Response Codes (STARC) effects and distance effects of past and future in four experiments. Results showed that for near past and near future, STARC effects were similar (Experiment 1). For distant past, the STARC effect was significant, but not for distant future (Experiment 2). Furthermore, the distance effect in the past was significantly stronger than in the future (Experiments 3, 4). These findings supported the idea that time points are not evenly distributed in mental time line. Spatial representations of the past and the future are asymmetric, and the spatial representation of past seems stronger than future. The logarithmic pattern of internal spatial representation of past or future is also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education Wuhan, China ; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Xianfeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education Wuhan, China ; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education Wuhan, China ; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Xiaorong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education Wuhan, China ; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Huashan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education Wuhan, China ; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Zhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fan
keywords: STARC effect; asymmetry; distance effect; mental time line