Is Face Age Mapped Horizontally into Space in a Culture with Mixed Reading Habits? A Cross-Cultural Study

This study investigates the Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect using facial age stimuli in a cross-cultural context involving Iranian and Italian participants. The research aims to explore how mixed reading habits influence the STEARC effect. Based on previous findings, we hypothesize that Italian participants, accustomed to a left-to-right orthographic system, will show faster responses to younger faces on the left and older faces on the right. Conversely, Iranian participants, who read from right to left but have mixed reading habits, might exhibit an opposite or weakened STEARC effect. The study also examines the temporal distance effect, predicting that reaction times will decrease as the age difference between target and reference faces increases. Our results confirm a significant Inverted STEARC effect in the Iranian sample, indicating for the first time that mixed reading habits can influence spatial-temporal associations with face age. The consistent observation of the distance effect across both cultures supports a universal cognitive mechanism in age perception. Additionally, the Temporal Diagram Task (TDT) and Temporal Focus Questionnaire (TFQ) provided insights into explicit and implicit temporal orientation, showing that cultural factors significantly influence spatial-temporal mappings. While no significant correlation was found between temporal focus and the STEARC effect, the TFQ results revealed that a majority of Iranians are future-focused. These findings suggest that cultural and linguistic factors play a crucial role in cognitive processes involving time and space, contributing to a deeper understanding of how reading and writing practices shape our perception of temporal and spatial associations.