Meaningless nonsense words like blorp and zorp still align themselves on a mental timeline inside the human brain.
Spatial coding in working memory is a byproduct of sound processing rather than the actual meaning of words. Many people believe we organize information based on how it relates to our life experiences or existing knowledge. This study used fake words to show that the brain automatically places sounds in a sequence regardless of their value. The mental timeline is an inherent feature of how we hear and store sequences of noise. This means our spatial sense of time is hardwired into our auditory system before we even learn what words mean.
Semantic characteristics do not influence spatialization in working memory
PsyArXiv · ajrew_v1
Serial order has been suggested to be represented spatially along a working memory line, oriented from left to right in Westerners. Such spatial coding of order is evidenced by the SPoARC (Spatial Positional Association of Response Codes), showing faster left-hand responses to early items in a sequence and faster right-hand responses to late items. Although this effect has been preferentially linked to semantic processing, the origin of the phenomenon remains unclear. In this study, we investiga