Collaborative Research Center 833, University of Tübingen.
German Department, University of Tübingen.
Cogn Sci. 2019 Jan;43(1). doi: 10.1111/cogs.12709.
Several reaction time (RT) studies report faster responses when responses to temporal information are arranged in a spatially congruent manner than when this arrangement is incongruent. The resulting space-time congruency effect is commonly attributed to a culturally salient localization of temporal information along a mental timeline (e.g., a mental timeline that runs from left to right). The present study aims to provide a compilation of the published RT studies on this time-space association in order to estimate the size of its effect and the extent of potential publication bias in this field of research. In this meta-analysis, three types of task are distinguished due to hitherto existing empirical findings. These findings suggest that the extent to which time is made relevant to the experimental task has a systematic impact on whether or not the mental timeline is activated. The results of this meta-analysis corroborate these considerations: First, experiments that make time a task-relevant dimension have a mean effect size of d = 0.46. Second, in experiments in which time is task irrelevant, the effect size does not significantly deviate from zero. Third, temporal priming studies have a surprisingly high mean effect size of d = 0.47, which, however, should be adjusted to d = 0.36 due to publication bias.
几项反应时 (RT) 研究报告称，当对时间信息的反应以空间一致的方式排列时，比以空间不一致的方式排列时，反应更快。由此产生的时空一致性效应通常归因于时间信息沿着心理时间线（例如，从左到右的心理时间线）进行文化上显著的定位。本研究旨在对关于这种时空关联的已发表 RT 研究进行汇编，以估计其效应的大小和该研究领域中潜在的发表偏倚程度。在这项荟萃分析中，由于现有经验发现，区分了三种类型的任务。这些发现表明，时间与实验任务相关的程度对心理时间线是否被激活有系统的影响。这项荟萃分析的结果证实了这些考虑因素：首先，使时间成为任务相关维度的实验的平均效应大小为 d = 0.46。其次，在时间与任务无关的实验中，效应大小与零无显著差异。第三，时间启动研究的平均效应大小令人惊讶地高，为 d = 0.47，但由于发表偏倚，应调整为 d = 0.36。
