Can mirror reading reverse the flow of time? Evidence from Japanese speakers

摘要

Sixty-four Japanese statements that used purely temporal terms “早/遅” (earlier/later) to describe the temporal relations were constructed. None of the sentences contained any spatial metaphoric expressions such as “front/back” to indicate the relationships between time units. The time units in the sentences included week days and months (e.g., 月曜日は木曜日より早く来る [English: “Monday comes earlier than Thursday], 三月は一月より遅く来る [English: “March comes later than January”]) (Appendix: Table 1). Participants were asked to verify whether the temporal order stated in the sentence was correct. Each prime contained one sentence, and all these statements were categorized into four types of primes: 32 horizontal standard-orthography primes in which each statement was written HLR, 32 horizontal mirror-orthography primes in which the same statements as in the horizontal standard-orthography primes were written HRL, 32 vertical standard-orthography primes in which each of the 32 remaining statements was arranged VTB, 32 vertical mirror-orthography primes in which the same statements as in the vertical standard-orthography primes were arranged vertically from bottom to top (VBT). Examples of the primes are shown in Figs. ​Figs.1a,1a, b, and ​and2a,2a, b. In other words, each sentence appeared twice, once in the standard-orthography condition and once in the mirror-orthography condition of the same spatial axis, contributing to a total of 128 primes. Primes were equally often true and false.