Temporal focus and time spatialization across cultures.

The temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) proposes that whether the past or the future is conceptualized as being located in front depends on temporal focus: the balance of attention paid to the past (tradition) and the future (progress). How general is the TFH, and to what extent can cultures and subcultures be placed on a single line relating time spatialization and temporal focus in spite of stark differences in language, religion, history, and economic development? Data from 10 Western (sub)cultural groups (N = 1198,) were used to derive a linear model relating aggregated temporal focus and proportion of future-in-front responses. This model then successfully fitted 10 independently collected (sub)cultural groups in China and Vietnam (N = 899).

A Comparison of Electronic and Paper Versions of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate older adults' performance on the paper and electronic Montreal Cognitive Assessment (eMoCA).

Design: Repeated measures and correlational design.

Participants: A convenience sample of 40 adults over 65 years of age living in the community.

Time Is Not More Abstract Than Space in Sound.

Time is talked about in terms of space more frequently than the other way around. Some have suggested that this asymmetry runs deeper than language. The idea that we think about abstract domains (like time) in terms of relatively more concrete domains (like space) but not can be traced to Conceptual Metaphor Theory.

A Protocol of Manual Tests to Measure Sensation and Pain in Humans.

Numerous qualitative and quantitative techniques can be used to test sensory nerves and pain in both research and clinical settings. The current study demonstrates a quantitative sensory testing protocol using techniques to measure tactile sensation and pain threshold for pressure and heat using portable and easily accessed equipment. These techniques and equipment are ideal for new laboratories and clinics where cost is a concern or a limiting factor.

Fronto-temporal regions encode the manner of motion in spatial language.

When describing spatial events, dynamic actions can be decomposed into the path of motion (where the object moves), and the manner of motion (how the object moves). These components may be instantiated in two processing streams in the human brain, wherein dorsal parietal areas process path-related information, while ventral temporal regions process manner information. Previous research showed this pattern during the observation of videos showing animate characters in motion [15].

Expertise and decision-making in American football.

In American football, pass interference calls can be difficult to make, especially when the timing of contact between players is ambiguous. American football history contains many examples of controversial pass interference decisions, often with fans, players, and officials interpreting the same event differently. The current study sought to evaluate the influence of experience with concepts important for officiating decisions in American football on the probability (i.

Categorical biases in perceiving spatial relations.

We investigate the effect of spatial categories on visual perception. In three experiments, participants made same/different judgments on pairs of simultaneously presented dot-cross configurations. For different trials, the position of the dot within each cross could differ with respect to either categorical spatial relations (the dots occupied different quadrants) or coordinate spatial relations (the dots occupied different positions within the same quadrant).

Space, time, and causality in the human brain.

The ability to perceive causality is a central human ability constructed from elemental spatial and temporal information present in the environment. Although the nature of causality has captivated philosophers and scientists since antiquity, the neural correlates of causality remain poorly understood. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to generate hypotheses for candidate brain regions related to component processes important for perceptual causality in the human brain: elemental space perception, elemental time perception, and decision-making (Experiment 1; n=16).

Schemas reveal spatial relations to a patient with simultanagnosia.

Maps, graphs, and diagrams use simplified graphic forms, like lines and blobs, to represent basic spatial relations, like boundaries and enclosures. A schema is an iconic representation where perceptual detail has been abstracted away from reality in order to provide a more flexible structure for cognition. Unlike truly symbolic representations of spatial relations (i.

Not all analogies are created equal: Associative and categorical analogy processing following brain damage.

Current research on analogy processing assumes that different conceptual relations are treated similarly. However, just as words and concepts are related in distinct ways, different kinds of analogies may employ distinct types of relationships. An important distinction in how words are related is the difference between associative (dog-bone) and categorical (dog-cat) relations.

From novel to familiar: tuning the brain for metaphors.

Metaphors are fundamental to creative thought and expression. Newly coined metaphors regularly infiltrate our collective vocabulary and gradually become familiar, but it is unclear how this shift from novel to conventionalized meaning happens in the brain. We investigated the neural career of metaphors in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using extensively normed new metaphors and simulated the ordinary, gradual experience of metaphor conventionalization by manipulating participants' exposure to these metaphors.

Language, perception, and the schematic representation of spatial relations.

Schemas are abstract nonverbal representations that parsimoniously depict spatial relations. Despite their ubiquitous use in maps and diagrams, little is known about their neural instantiation. We sought to determine the extent to which schematic representations are neurally distinguished from language on the one hand, and from rich perceptual representations on the other.

Deconstructing events: the neural bases for space, time, and causality.

Space, time, and causality provide a natural structure for organizing our experience. These abstract categories allow us to think relationally in the most basic sense; understanding simple events requires one to represent the spatial relations among objects, the relative durations of actions or movements, and the links between causes and effects. The present fMRI study investigates the extent to which the brain distinguishes between these fundamental conceptual domains.

Stimulus design is an obstacle course: 560 matched literal and metaphorical sentences for testing neural hypotheses about metaphor.

Despite the ubiquity and importance of metaphor in thought and communication, its neural mediation remains elusive. We suggest that this uncertainty reflects, in part, stimuli that have not been designed with recent conceptual frameworks in mind or that have been hampered by inadvertent differences between metaphoric and literal conditions. In this article, we begin addressing these shortcomings by developing a large, flexible, extensively normed, and theoretically motivated set of metaphoric and literal sentences.

Differential outcome effects in pavlovian biconditional and ambiguous occasion setting tasks.

Three experiments with rats explored the differential outcome effect (DOE) using a pavlovian magazine approach conditioning preparation. Experiment 1 compared groups trained on a biconditional discrimination (AX+, AY-, BX-, BY+) with differential or nondifferential outcomes, and Experiment 2 examined this using an ambiguous occasion setting task (e.g.

A sinister bias for calling fouls in soccer.

Distinguishing between a fair and unfair tackle in soccer can be difficult. For referees, choosing to call a foul often requires a decision despite some level of ambiguity. We were interested in whether a well documented perceptual-motor bias associated with reading direction influenced foul judgments.

Are temporal concepts embodied? A challenge for cognitive neuroscience.

Is time an embodied concept? People often talk and think about temporal concepts in terms of space. This observation, along with linguistic and experimental behavioral data documenting a close conceptual relation between space and time, is often interpreted as evidence that temporal concepts are embodied. However, there is little neural data supporting the idea that our temporal concepts are grounded in sensorimotor representations.

Prescribed spatial prepositions influence how we think about time.

Prepositions combine with nouns flexibly when describing concrete locative relations (e.g. at/on/in the school) but are rigidly prescribed when paired with abstract concepts (e.

Beyond laterality: a critical assessment of research on the neural basis of metaphor.

Metaphors are a fundamental aspect of human cognition. The major neuropsychological hypothesis that metaphoric processing relies primarily on the right hemisphere is not confirmed consistently. We propose ways to advance our understanding of the neuropsychology of metaphor that go beyond simple laterality.