The metaphoric nature of the ordinal position effect

The combination of the horizontal and vertical dimensions in mental time representation: the existence of a spatial mental map of time

Horizontal and vertical representations of time (past-left or down and future-right or top) have been demonstrated. However, only a few studies have investigated the existence of a spatial map of time, considering it as the interaction of different spatial dimensions in space. The aim of this study was to investigate the existence of a mental time representation along the diagonal axes, intended as the combination of the horizontal and the vertical dimensions. Seventy-nine Italian participants (85% females; mean age = 25.11 ± 4.86 years; 77 right-handed) performed an online temporal judgment task using 20 Italian temporal expressions presented either always in the center (Experiment 1) or in the four corners of the screen (Experiment 2) and two pairs of response keys ("C" and "U" for the positive diagonal; "R" and "N" for the negative diagonal). Results showed spatial-temporal associations in positive (i.e., time was represented from left-bottom to right-top) and negative (i.e., time was represented from left-top to right-bottom) diagonals, although in Experiment 2 these associations were weak for the negative diagonal. These spatial-temporal associations along both diagonals were confirmed even when participants were free to place different temporal stimuli along a diagonally drawn line, in a Time-to-Position task, indicating that the temporal expressions could be ordered linearly along the diagonal spaces. Finally, these data indicated that the horizontal information was mainly used for determining the spatial-temporal associations along both diagonals, whereas the vertical information was flexible with a bottom-to-top (for positive diagonal) and top-to-bottom (for negative diagonal) temporal representation.

Optimized experimental designs to best detect spatial positional association of response codes in working memory

The SPoARC (Spatial Positional Association of Response Codes) effect refers to spatialization of information in working memory. Among the potential factors that could influence how order is mapped onto a mental space during the recognition process, we selected the following two factors: i) the type of stimuli, in particular their verbal vs. visual aspects and ii) the number of probes. In this study, 137 participants memorized sequences of either words or pictures and subsequently performed a recognition test for which they responded using lateralized keys. For half of the participants, only one probe was presented after each sequence, whereas the other half was administered several probes. A significantly greater number of participants presented a SPoARC using a single probe. We discuss that spatialization is best detected when the sequence is scanned only once. Results also showed no difference between the two types of stimuli (i.e., verbal vs. visual). This finding raises the question of the respective roles of verbalization and visualization in the SPoARC.

What Do I Suggest You Focus on in My Photo Story? The Effect of User Personality on the Position Significance of Jiugong Grid Images in Microblog

Jiugong grid is one of the most used forms of multiple images posting in social media, with nine images arranged in three rows and three columns to present a related topic story from one microblog. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the big five personality traits and the sequence position of Jiugong grid images. Two hundred thirty-seven volunteers completed a survey on the big five personality traits, and their 4,671 Jiugong grid microblogs with 42,039 photos were also obtained and analyzed. The results showed that users with varied kinds of personality traits could apply the significant position of Jiugong grid to emphasize certain content among multiple photos for a more attractable "story telling" in microblog. Compared with the image sequence position from the perspective of reading order, user personality traits had more relationship with that from the perspective of attention. This study is one of the first investigating the Jiugong grid image sharing behavior, which could theoretically enrich the social media image research from cognitive view and practically reveal the motivation of multiple images usage in social media, such as interface design and marketing purpose.

A SPoARC of Music: Musicians Spatialize Melodies but not All-Comers

Recent studies on the spatial positional associated response codes (SPoARC) effect have shown that when Western adults are asked to keep in mind sequences of verbal items, they mentally spatialize them along the horizontal axis, with the initial items being associated with the left and the last items being associated with the right. The origin of this mental line is still debated, but it has been theorized that it necessitates specific spatial cognitive structures to emerge, which are built through expertise. This hypothesis is examined by testing for the first time whether Western individuals spatialize melodies from left to right and whether expertise in the musical domain is necessary for this effect to emerge. Two groups (musicians and non-musicians) of participants were asked to memorize sequences of four musical notes and to indicate if a subsequent probe was part of the sequence by pressing a "yes" key or a "no" key with the left or right index finger. Left/right-hand key assignment was reversed at mid-experiment. The results showed a SPoARC effect only for the group of musicians. Moreover, no association between pitch and hand responses was observed in either of the two groups. These findings suggest a crucial role of expertise in the SPoARC effect.

Early is left and up: Saccadic responses reveal horizontal and vertical spatial associations of serial order in working memory

Maintaining serial order in working memory is crucial for cognition. Recent theories propose that serial information is achieved by positional coding of items on a spatial frame of reference. In line with this, an early-left and late-right spatial-positional association of response code (SPoARC) effect has been established. Various theoretical accounts have been put forward to explain the SPoARC effect (the mental whiteboard hypothesis, conceptual metaphor theory, polarity correspondence, or the indirect spatial-numerical association effect). Crucially, while all these accounts predict a left-to-right orientation of the SPoARC effect, they make different predictions regarding the direction of a possible vertical SPoARC effect. In this study, we therefore investigated SPoARC effects along the horizontal and vertical spatial dimension by means of saccadic responses. We replicated the left-to-right horizontal SPoARC effect and established for the first time an up-to-down vertical SPoARC effect. The direction of the vertical SPoARC effect was in contrast to that predicted by metaphor theory, polarity correspondence, or by the indirect spatial-numerical association effect. Rather, our results support the mental whiteboard-hypothesis, according to which positions can be flexibly coded on an internal space depending on the task demands. We also found that the strengths of the horizontal and vertical SPoARC effects were correlated, showing that some people are more prone than others to use spatial references for position coding. Our results therefore suggest that context templates used for position marking are not necessarily spatial in nature but depend on individual strategy preferences.

The neural mechanism of spatial-positional association in working memory: A fMRI study

In the last decade, research has reported that items at the beginning of a memorized sequence are responded to faster with the left hand, whereas items at the end are responded to faster with the right hand. This Spatial-Positional Associations of Response Codes effect has been extensively studied using behavioral methods. However, the neural networks underlying it remain unclear. We found using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that the dorsal attention network was involved in spatial-positional associations, in particular a region of the right superior frontal cortex / pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), within which neural activity correlated with behavioral measures of the strength of spatial-positional associations. Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis revealed functional connectivity between this area and other regions of the dorsal attentional network including the SMA, and with the hippocampal-retrosplenial network. In contrast, explicit processing of serial order independent of spatial-positional associations was related to activity in the inferior parietal cortex. Our results provide new insight into positional coding theories of working memory, including the mental whiteboard hypothesis. They suggest that the behavioral effects of positional coding (congruency between hand and ordinal position within the list) are mediated through spatial and motor control maps in the dorsal attentional system.