Zheng Weiqi, Liu Ye, Liu Chang Hong, Chen Yu-Hsin, Cui Qian, Fu Xiaolan
State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2019 Mar 5;10:410. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00410. eCollection 2019.
Time is generally conceptualized in terms of space as reflected in temporal-spatial metaphors. Two observation perspectives have been proposed in the front-back axis of the temporal-spatial metaphor. One is called "ego-moving perspective" and the other "time-moving perspective." They are used to represent different relative motion between time and the observer. Previous studies have demonstrated the psychological reality of both perspectives. They also provided evidence that emotion can influence a perspective choice. In general, a positive emotion tends to facilitate the adoption of ego-moving perspective, whereas, a negative emotion tends to promote the adoption of time-moving perspective. However, it is unclear how the motivational dimension of emotion might influence the preference. The current study aimed to address the question by identifying conditions in which emotional valence or motivational attribute affects the choice of time movement perspective. An ambiguous temporal question and a visualized time motion schema were adopted to probe participants' metaphorical representation of time when they were affected by emotion. Study 1 investigated how a future emotional event would affect participants' choice of the time movement perspective. The results showed that positive future events led to a higher propensity to adopt an ego-moving perspective compared with negative future events. Study 2 explored participants' tendency to choose time movement perspective for a vague or neutral future event, after they were induced into a particular emotional state. The results showed that when being in an emotional state of approach-motivation individuals were more likely to adopt an ego-moving perspective. In contrast, being in an emotional state of avoidance-motivation, individuals were more likely to take a time-moving perspective. Taken together, these results suggest that the emotional valence of future events can influence the choice of time movement perspectives; and the motivational dimension of present emotional states plays an important role when contemplating a neutral future event.
时间通常根据空间来概念化，这在时空隐喻中有所体现。在时空隐喻的前后轴上提出了两种观察视角。一种称为“自我移动视角”，另一种称为“时间移动视角”。它们用于表示时间与观察者之间不同的相对运动。先前的研究已经证明了这两种视角的心理现实性。它们还提供了证据表明情绪会影响视角选择。一般来说，积极情绪倾向于促进自我移动视角的采用，而消极情绪则倾向于促进时间移动视角的采用。然而，尚不清楚情绪的动机维度如何影响这种偏好。当前的研究旨在通过确定情绪效价或动机属性影响时间移动视角选择的条件来解决这个问题。采用一个模糊的时间问题和一个可视化的时间运动图式来探究参与者在受到情绪影响时对时间的隐喻表征。研究1调查了未来的情绪事件将如何影响参与者对时间运动视角的选择。结果表明，与消极的未来事件相比，积极的未来事件导致采用自我移动视角的倾向更高。研究2探讨了在诱导参与者进入特定情绪状态后，他们对模糊或中性未来事件选择时间运动视角的倾向。结果表明，处于趋近动机情绪状态时，个体更有可能采用自我移动视角。相反，处于回避动机情绪状态时，个体更有可能采用时间移动视角。综上所述，这些结果表明未来事件的情绪效价可以影响时间运动视角的选择；并且在思考中性未来事件时，当前情绪状态的动机维度起着重要作用。
