In hindsight, life flows from left to right.

ABSTRACT

Three experiments investigated the mental representation of meaningful event sequences. Experiment 1 used extended (5 min long) naturalistic scenes excerpted from commercial movies. Experiments 2 and 3 presented everyday activities by means of sequences of six photographs. All experiments found both left-right and distance effects in an order decision task, suggesting that when contemplated in hindsight, experienced events unfold along a left-to-right analogical mental line. Present results are discussed in the context of the mental representation of other kinds of ordinal sequences, and other left-right effects reported in non-ordinal domains.