Putting time in context: There is no causal link between temporal focus and implicit space–time mappings on the front–back axis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The temporal-focus hypothesis (TFH) states that people’s mental conceptualization of past or future as in front is determined by their cultural attitudes towards time. Whereas previous studies have found that personally and contextually-relevant factors (e.g. studying and visiting experience) can cause people’s attentional focus to shift, and their implicit space–time mappings to change accordingly, the current study instead shows that Chinese participants adhered to a future-in-front mapping and maintained a future-focus irrespective of experimentally-induced or naturally-occurring contextual stimuli and that temporal focus was not a reliable predictor of temporal representation. These findings call into question the generalizability of the TFH and the inherent reliability of its assessment instruments, thus arguing that further replication studies need to be conducted before concluding that implicit space–time mappings are a function of cultural attitudes towards time.