Abstract: Sensorimotor experience is the basis and key to connect time and space. Reading order and writing habits directly affect the orientation of mental timelines and play a decisive role in the horizontal mental timelines. This study aimed to investigate how sensorimotor experiences such as visual and reading habits affect the formation of mental time in the blind. In experiment 1 and 2 we used the phrases in a day such as “read a bed time story” as stimuli. Both sighted and blind students in the third grade of primary school were taken as participants. In each trial, words were presented in both the left and right ear at the same time. There were four blocks for each participant. In block 1, if the stimulus was earlier than noon, participants pressed the “D” key. And if it was later than noon, they pressed the “K” key. In block 2, the rules for keystrokes were reversed. The rules of the first two and the latter two blocks were conterbalanced among the participants. In experiment 3 and 4 we used words describing time such as “morning” or “past” as stimuli. The participants were recruited from first-year junior high school. The experiment 1 showed that sighted students react fast in the “early-left, late-right” rule, indicating the left-right mental time line had occurred. However, there was no difference between early stimuli with left response and late stimuli with right response. The results of experiment 2 produced similar results. In experiment 3 and 4, we found both the sighted and blind students of first-year junior high school demonstrated an early-left, late-right mental time line, and the response time of the blind were longer. For the blind, no time-space consistency was found in the third grade of primary school, indicating that visual experience plays a foundational role in the formation of mental timeline, at least in the early stages of life. Reading training may play a decisive role in shaping the direction of mental timelines. The blind need to experience a certain period of reading and other trainings can compensate for the lack of information in the visual channel. On the whole, this study show that visual perception is the basis of mental time line, and reading experience and writing training directly affect the formation of mental time line. In the different stages of psychological development, different factors affect development of mental timeline.

Key words: time, space, blindness, sensorimotor experience

摘要： 本研究考察视觉和读写习惯有关的感知运动经验是如何影响心理时间形成的。实验1和实验2分别采用一天内和一生中的词语或短句，以小学三年级的普生和盲生为被试，结果发现不论是短的还是长的时间，普生对早的刺激按左键，晚的刺激按右键反应更快，而盲生未出现早左晚右的心理时间线。实验3和实验4分别以短时间和长时间范围的时间词为材料，以初一盲生和普生为被试，结果发现普生和盲生都是对过去的时间按左键，未来的时间按右键反应快；而且在长的时间范围内，盲生的反应时长于普生。结果表明视觉是心理时间线的基础，阅读经验在盲生心理时间线的形成中起着关键作用。

关键词: 心理时间线, 先天盲, 纵向比较, 感知运动经验