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Cognitive restructuring: Psychophysical measurement of time perception in bilinguals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2023

Panos Athanasopoulos Open the ORCID record for Panos Athanasopoulos [Opens in a new window]  and
Emanuel Bylund
Panos Athanasopoulos*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK; Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Emanuel Bylund
Affiliation:
Department of General Linguistics, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa; Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
*
Address for correspondence: Professor Panos Athanasopoulos Department of Linguistics and English Language County South Lancaster University Lancaster United Kingdom LA1 4YL Email: p.athanasopoulos@lancaster.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper explores the link between the metaphoric structure TIME IS SPACE and time perception in bilinguals. While there appear to be fundamental commonalities in the way humans perceive and experience time regardless of language background, language-specific spatiotemporal metaphors can give rise to differences between populations, under certain conditions. Little is known, however, about how bilinguals experience time, and the specific factors that may modulate bilingual temporal processing. Here, we address this gap by examining L1 Spanish – L2 Swedish bilinguals in a psychophysical task. Results show that duration estimation of dynamic spatial configurations analogous to L2-specific temporal metaphors is modulated by L2 proficiency. In contrast, duration estimation of spatial configurations analogous to the L1 metaphorical expressions appears to be modulated by the age of L2 acquisition. These findings are discussed in terms of associative learning and cognitive restructuring in the bilingual mind.

Keywords

spatiotemporal metaphorsduration estimationcognitive restructuring
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , August 2023 , pp. 809 - 818
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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