Effect of Presentation Format on Judgment of Long-Range Time Intervals

Spatial conceptual mapping of words with temporal semantics

Unlike concrete words related to sensory perception (e.g., hear, sun), abstract words (including the words with temporal semantics, e.g., year, tomorrow) do not have direct embodied sensory correlates. Nevertheless, existing research indicates that abstract concepts’ representations make regular reference to sensorimotor processes, e.g., visual perception. For example, regular expressions such as “the future is ahead” or “the flow of time” are common in different languages reflecting a relatively universal nature of space-time correspondences. Moreover, these regular correspondences are commonly demonstrated in experimental studies; for example — by registering attentional displacement during processing of past and future related words. Here, the main theoretical approaches as well as existing experimental data documenting neurocognitive foundations of space-time representations are reviewed. A detailed overview of research on spatial-conceptual mapping of time concepts in three-dimensional visual space is offered. We also consider features of space-time associations that reflect linguistic and socio-cultural differences. In conclusion, the main areas of current and future that will allow an integration of the existing data within a common theoretical framework are defined.

Neglect in temporal domain: Amelioration following a prismatic adaptation treatment and implications in everyday life. A single case study

As in line bisection, in time bisection, neglect patients fail to process the first/left part of time representation (Mental-Time-Line-MTL) resulting in a rightward shift of the interval midpoint. A leftward shift of spatial attention after one session of prismatic-adaptation (PA) reduces this deficit. The impact on daily life of time deficit is little investigated in neglect. Here we study the time deficit and its ecological impact in an outpatient with neglect (LL) and the effects of a PA-treatment (ten sessions) on the deficit and its impact. Before and after PA-treatment, LL completed a: time-bisection-task assessing the MTL in the milliseconds-seconds range; lifespan-task assessing the MTL in the lifespan range; qualitative interview assessing the impact on daily routines. Patient's performance on the tasks was compared with the performance of non-neurological controls. Before PA-treatment, LL showed a rightward shift in the time-bisection-task and a compression of life events distribution in the lifespan-task. The feeling "to be forward in time" emerged in the interview. The PA-treatment reduced the deficits in the tasks and the feeling "to be forward in time" in the interview. PA-treatment is suggested as a powerful instrument for the reduction of time deficit and its ecological impact in neglect patients.

More Later: Delay of Gratification and Thought About the Future in Children

We investigated whether individual differences in future time perception and the detail with which future events are imagined are related to children's delay of gratification. We administered a delay choice task (real rewards), a delay discounting task (hypothetical rewards), a novel future time perception measure, an episodic future thinking (EFT) interview and IQ measures to a sample of 7- to 11-year-olds (N = 132) drawn from a urban predominately white population in N. Ireland. We found a strong correlation between delay choice and delay discounting. Future time perception and EFT were related to delay discounting, however only the relation with future time perception survived controlling for age and IQ. Children who showed greater compression of future time periods were the steepest discounters.