Carmona Isabel, Rodriguez-Rodriguez Jose, Alvarez Dolores, Noguera Carmen
Department of Psychology, Health Research Center, University of Almería, Carretera Sacramento s/n. 04120 La Cañada de San Urbano, Almería, Spain.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2024 Dec;31(6):2634-2645. doi: 10.3758/s13423-024-02497-1. Epub 2024 Apr 19.
This research aimed to investigate whether the mental space-time association of temporal concepts could be modulated by the availability of cognitive resources (in terms of working memory and inhibitory control capacities) and to explore whether access to this association could be an automatic process. To achieve this, two experiments were carried out. In Experiment 1, participants had to classify words with future and past meanings. The working memory load (high vs. low) was manipulated and the participants were grouped into quartiles according to their visuospatial working memory capacity (WMC). Temporal concepts were displayed subliminally (immediate masking) and supraliminally (delayed masking). The ANOVA showed a performance pattern consistent with the left-past right-future conceptual scheme, regardless of both the type of masking and the working memory load, except in high WMC participants, in which, interestingly, the space-time association effect was absent. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to respond to the colour of the font of the temporal words, and their attentional control capacity was assessed. The results indicated a timeline effect that was irrespective of the WM load and the type of perceptual processing, but not of the WM capacity or the inhibitory abilities. These findings partially endorse the automatic and implicit access to the mental space-time association and suggest the involvement of the availability of cognitive resources. Individual WMC differences appear to modulate the automatic nature of the effect rather than the processing conditions themselves.
本研究旨在调查时间概念的心理时空关联是否会受到认知资源可用性（从工作记忆和抑制控制能力方面）的调节，并探索获取这种关联是否可能是一个自动过程。为实现这一目标，进行了两项实验。在实验1中，参与者必须对具有未来和过去含义的单词进行分类。操纵工作记忆负荷（高与低），并根据参与者的视觉空间工作记忆容量（WMC）将其分为四分位数。时间概念以阈下（即时掩蔽）和阈上（延迟掩蔽）的方式呈现。方差分析显示，无论掩蔽类型和工作记忆负荷如何，表现模式都与左过去右未来的概念模式一致，但高WMC参与者除外，有趣的是，在这些参与者中不存在时空关联效应。在实验2中，要求参与者对时间词的字体颜色做出反应，并评估他们的注意力控制能力。结果表明存在时间线效应，该效应与工作记忆负荷和感知处理类型无关，但与工作记忆容量或抑制能力无关。这些发现部分支持了对心理时空关联的自动和隐性获取，并表明认知资源可用性的参与。个体WMC差异似乎调节了该效应的自动性质，而非处理条件本身。
