Jiang, Jiayu; Gu, Yan; (2024) Asymmetry in Language, Asymmetry in Mind: The Effect of Sagittal Time-space Metaphors on Children’s Understanding of Time. In: Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. (pp. pp. 1801-1808).

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Abstract

Although space helps children to grasp time, comprehending temporal metaphors remains challenging. Particularly, Mandarin has different degree of ambiguity in sagittal time-space metaphors, where ‘qian' (front/past) expresses both future-in-front and past-in-front mappings but ‘hou' (back/future) predominately expresses future-at-back mappings. Temporal metaphors with a longer duration unit (e.g., year vs. hour) also increase this challenge. We investigated: 1) when children understand sagittal time-space metaphors; 2) whether different degree of ambiguity leads children to having an asymmetric understanding of the past and future; 3) how the unit of temporal duration affects time understanding. 138 Mandarin-speaking children (3-5 years) undertook an 8-item sagittal time-space metaphors test. The results showed that age 5 is a milestone to understand sagittal time-space metaphors, and a longer unit of time duration and more ambiguous space-time metaphors hinder children's time comprehension. This study reveals the development of time cognition in non-western children and demonstrates how language impacts cognition.

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