Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery: An eye-tracking investigation of the processing of past and future time reference during sentence reading.

Abstract

The ability to think about nonpresent time is a crucial aspect of human cognition. Both the past and future imply a temporal displacement of an event outside the "now." They also intrinsically differ: The past refers to inalterable events; the future to alterable events, to possible worlds. Are the past and future processed similarly or differently? In this study, we addressed this question by investigating how Spanish speakers process past/future time reference violations during sentence processing, while recording eye movements. We also investigated the role of verbs (in isolation; within sentences) and adverbs (deictic; nondeictic) during time processing. Existing accounts propose that past processing, which requires a link to discourse, is more complex than future processing, which-like the present-is locally bound. Our findings show that past and future processing differs, especially at early stages of verb processing, but this difference is not limited to the presence/absence of discourse linking. We found earlier mismatch effects for past compared to future time reference in incongruous sentences, in line with previous studies. Interestingly, it took longer to categorize the past than the future tense when verbs were presented in isolation. However, it took longer to categorize the future than the past when verbs were presented in congruous sentences, arguably because the future implies alterable worlds. Finally, temporal adverbs were found to play an important role in reinspection and reanalysis triggered by the presence of undefined time frames (nondeictic adverbs) or incongruences (mismatching verbs).

Past and future time reference processing teased apart in Paiwan, an endangered Formosan language

“…These two studies provide evidence concerning the processing disadvantage of past-time reference compared to present-time reference. The experiment conducted by Biondo et al (2022) in Spanish further suggests that processing past time reference yields greater difficulties than future time reference as well. In this study, Biondo et al (2022) asked the participants to categorize verbs as inflected for past or future tense as fast as possible.…”

“…The experiment conducted by Biondo et al (2022) in Spanish further suggests that processing past time reference yields greater difficulties than future time reference as well. In this study, Biondo et al (2022) asked the participants to categorize verbs as inflected for past or future tense as fast as possible. The participants required more time to categorize past-tense verbs than future-tense verbs, and Biondo et al (2022) interpret this difference as an indication of enhanced processing difficulties for past-time reference.…”

“…The processing patterns of time reference have been investigated in different languages, such as English (Bastiaanse et al, 2011;Faroqi-Shah & Dickey, 2009), Dutch (Baggio, 2008;Bos et al, 2013;Dragoy et al, 2012), Italian (Biondo et al, 2021), Mandarin Chinese (Bastiaanse et al, 2011;Collart & Chan, 2021), and Spanish (Biondo et al, 2022), using a variety of types of investigation (e.g., patient studies, behavioral studies, ERP or fMRI). These studies point out an asymmetry when processing past and non-past temporal frames.…”

“…These studies point out an asymmetry when processing past and non-past temporal frames. Evidence from the behavioral studies conducted with healthy population available in the literature is summarized in turn below, corresponding to Biondo et al (2022), Collart and Chan (2021), Dragoy et al (2012), andFaroqi-Shah andDickey (2009). 3 Faroqi-Shah and Dickey (2009) investigated the processing of tense agreement mismatch in English with sentences involving different time frames which could be morphologically encoded with verbal suffixed or auxiliary verbs.…”

“…In this study, Biondo et al (2022) asked the participants to categorize verbs as inflected for past or future tense as fast as possible. The participants required more time to categorize past-tense verbs than future-tense verbs, and Biondo et al (2022) interpret this difference as an indication of enhanced processing difficulties for past-time reference.…”