學刊論文
Revisiting the Extended Present Hypothesis: Chinese Speakers’ Perception of Time

DOI:10.6129/CJP.201906_61(2).0003
中華心理學刊 民108,61 卷,2 期,131-150
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2019, Vol.61, No.2, 131-150


Shuping Huang(Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan);Jenn-Yeu Chen(Department of Chinese as a Second Language, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan)

 

Abstract

A recent study by Chen, Su, and O’Seaghdha (2013) found that Chinese speakers maintain an extended present time frame in which the present lasts for a longer duration compared to English participants, and that Chinese speakers tend to perceive past and future events as ongoing. We tested this Extended Present Hypothesis further with Cottle’s Circle Test and the Duration Inventory. The Circle Test showed that when native Chinese speakers drew three circles representing the present, past, and future, 66.7% of the circles overlap one another, with the present in the middle bridging the past and the future. In the Duration Inventory Test, native Chinese speakers viewed the present as lasting from seconds, minutes and hours. This contrasted with results of English speakers, which showed the present to last for just seconds. These results are  consistent with the Extended Present Hypothesis in terms of its two postulations: the elongated present and integrated time. Beyond their postulations, the present study extends the Hypothesis to nonlinguistic frames, arguing that linguistic difference may not be the only influence, and that cultural practices should be taken into account for better explanations.


Keywords: cross-cultural psychology, extended present, time orientation, time perception

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