Moving Events in Time: Time-Referent Hand-Arm Movements Influence Perceived Temporal Distance to Past Events.

We examine and find support for the hypothesis that time-referent hand-arm movements influence temporal judgments. In line with the concept of "left is associated with earlier times, and right is associated with later times," we show that performing left (right) hand-arm movements while thinking abo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of Experimental Psychology. General Vol. 142; no. 2; pp. 319 - 323
Main Authors:	Blom, Stephanie S. A. H., Semin, Gün R.
Format:	Article
Published:	American Psychological Association May2013
Subjects:	Motor ability Hand Temporal lobe Evoked potentials (Electrophysiology) Hypothesis Brain function localization
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

Description
Summary:	We examine and find support for the hypothesis that time-referent hand-arm movements influence temporal judgments. In line with the concept of "left is associated with earlier times, and right is associated with later times," we show that performing left (right) hand-arm movements while thinking about a past event increases (decreases) the perceived temporal distance to the event. These findings show for the first time that hand-arm movements can influence the perceived temporal distance to events.