Designing, Making and Evaluating Psychometric Characteristics of the Time Perception Pattern as Metaphorical Questionnaire Based on Cognitive- Dataset Analysis in Persians

Time is an abstract concept that can be understood by conceptual or cognitive metaphors. A questionnaire based on dataset and qualitative analysis has not been designed in Persian yet to investigate the metaphorical perception of different source domains with various mappings. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to design, make and evaluate the psychometric characteristics of a time perception pattern as a metaphorical questionnaire based on cognitive dataset analysis among Persian speakers. The method of this study was descriptive and psychometric, and it was a survey type of research. For cognitive dataset analysis, a set of 28 contemporary Persian texts were first selected as a targeted sample and then 405 metaphorical expressions of time were extracted in 18 metaphorical mappings. It indicated source domains as object, matter, path and place, which are the most used time source domains. Based on cognitive dataset analysis, 41 questions with a Likert scale were made for the time perception pattern. The questions of this questionnaire were evaluated by 8 cognitive linguists and 2 psychometrics. Then, inappropriate questions were deleted and other questions were corrected or replaced, and at the end of the content, the validity index of the 30 remaining questions were calculated. This questionnaire was completed by 150 Persian speakers (with a bachelor’s degree and above) selected by at-reach sampling. The results showed that there was a reliability coefficient by using Cronbach’s alpha for the whole questionnaire and its components. Moreover, the results of factor analysis indicated that there were three factors of matter, place and object, which explained 37.12 % of the total variance. As a result, the time perception pattern as a metaphorical questionnaire is a valid and reliable instrument in the case of Persian speakers.