Influence of Movement on the Directionality of Space-Time Representation Mappings

When talking about time, we often refer to space. It is has been proposed that the concept of time employs the same representational structure of that of space (e.g. Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). There is both linguistic and experimental evidence that points toward the use of space when thinking or speaking about temporal concepts, such as tomorrow or last month. Linguistically, evidence exists in metaphors with which we use to talk about time. For example, we use metaphors that imply time is space that we move through, or that time is an object in space moving toward us, such as "We're almost to the weekend," or "last month went by quickly," (Santiago, Lupianez, Perez, & Funes, 2007; Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). In addition, a number of experimental studies have shown clear activation of certain spatial schemas when people think about temporal phrases. However, these studies seem to show conflicting findings in terms of the direction of the time to space mappings. Some studies show activation of the front/back axis, while others show activation on the left/right axis. With the data presented here, I offer an explanation for the directional differences previously observed, and argue that self-movement is a key factor in the directionality of the conceptual mappings of time onto space