Eye movements during mental time travel follow a diagonal line
- Recent research showed that past events are associated with the back and left side, whereas future events are associated with the front and right side of space. These spatial-temporal associations have an impact on our sensorimotor system: thinking about one's past and future leads to subtle body sways in the sagittal dimension of space (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2010). In this study we investigated whether mental time travel leads to sensorimotor correlates in the horizontal dimension of space. Participants were asked to mentally displace themselves into the past or future while measuring their spontaneous eye movements on a blank screen. Eye gaze was directed more rightward and upward when thinking about the future than when thinking about the past. Our results provide further insight into the spatial nature of temporal thoughts, and show that not only body, but also eye movements follow a (diagonal) "time line" during mental time travel. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Author details: | Matthias Hartmann, Corinna S. Martarelli, Fred W. Mast, Kurt Stocker |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.09.007 |
ISSN: | 1053-8100 |
ISSN: | 1090-2376 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25307523 |
Title of parent work (English): | Consciousness and cognition |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | San Diego |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2014 |
Publication year: | 2014 |
Release date: | 2017/03/27 |
Tag: | Embodied cognition; Eye movements; Future; Mental number line; Mental time line; Mental time travel; Metaphors; Past; Spatial-temporal association |
Volume: | 30 |
Number of pages: | 9 |
First page: | 201 |
Last Page: | 209 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Institution name at the time of the publication: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Exzellenzbereich Kognitionswissenschaften |