The current study investigated the influence of the Swedish writing system on the mental representation of temporal succession in adult Swedish speakers. The hypotheses predicted that the temporal succession should follow the direction of the Swedish writing system among the tested participants, and that there would be some variation in the group due to individual reading habits. The results of the experiment showed that a majority (approximately 85 %) of the participants did follow the direction of the writing system, such that they had a preference for a direction from left-to-right, while the rest of the participants had a preference for opposite right-to-left direction. The quantitative calculations revealed that the variables of age and the frequency of reading novels accounted for the variation in the sample. The hypothesis that the majority of the participants represented temporal succession in accordance with the directionality of the Swedish writing system was therefore confirmed, as well as the hypothesis that there would be a possible variation due to individual reading habits.

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