The paper explores how people construct abstract concepts like time by investigating the relationship between mental representations of space and time. Using six psychophysical experiments, the authors found that people's judgments of duration are influenced by irrelevant spatial information, but not vice versa. This asymmetry, predicted by the asymmetrical use of spatial metaphors in language, suggests that our mental representations of time are asymmetrically dependent on our representations of space. The findings indicate that our understanding of abstract concepts may be built on physical experiences and motor actions, even when these concepts cannot be directly perceived or experienced. The study provides evidence that the metaphorical relationship between space and time observed in language also exists in more basic cognitive representations.The paper explores how people construct abstract concepts like time by investigating the relationship between mental representations of space and time. Using six psychophysical experiments, the authors found that people's judgments of duration are influenced by irrelevant spatial information, but not vice versa. This asymmetry, predicted by the asymmetrical use of spatial metaphors in language, suggests that our mental representations of time are asymmetrically dependent on our representations of space. The findings indicate that our understanding of abstract concepts may be built on physical experiences and motor actions, even when these concepts cannot be directly perceived or experienced. The study provides evidence that the metaphorical relationship between space and time observed in language also exists in more basic cognitive representations.