Benjamin Bergen|Ting Ting Chan Lau
Writing Direction Affects How People Map Space Onto Time
University of California, San Diego|University of Hawaii System
determines spatial axis people use represent time investigate effects writing direction english like mandarin chinese mainland china written left right top bottom taiwan characters written predominantly top bottom right left fluent readerwriter entails thousands hours experience eye hand movement direction dictated ones writing system could writing system direction affects axis used represent time terms space behavioral experiment native speakers english mandarin chinese mainland china mandarin chinese taiwan place sets cards temporal order cards depicted stages development plants animals instance tadpole froglet frog results showed english speakers always represented time moving left right lr mainland chinese participants trended direction small portion laid cards top bottom taiwanese participants likely depict time moving lr top bottom large minority depicting moving right left native writing system affects people represent time spatially