Running down the clock: The role of expectation in our understanding of time and motion

Abstract

Time is often talked about in terms of motion. People talk about themselves ‘moving’ through time, or about time ‘moving’ relative to them. Previous research has shown that attending to actual motion can influence judgements about time. Further, fictive motion language – figurative attributions of motion to static objects in space – has been shown to have much the same effect, suggesting that thought about space influences thought about time. However, evidence to date on fictive motion comes from experiments that included some degree of actual motion, such as drawing. In a series of four experiments, we tease apart the influence of actual motion and fictive motion language on people's understanding of time. The results suggest that the similar ways in which people talk about motion through space and motion through time play an important part in their common underlying conceptualisation. This has important implications for our understanding of what comprises literal and metaphorical uses of language, and for the relationship between language, language use, and thought.

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