A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter–Word Associations in the Development of Grapheme–Colour Synaesthesia

Mankin, Jennifer L.; Simner, Julia

doi:10.1163/22134808-00002554

Cited by 24 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The findings of the current studies strengthen the view that grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a psycholinguistic phenomenon-the view that grapheme-colour synaesthesia builds on normal language processing [9][10][11][13][14][15]45]. Synaesthetic colours are elicited by grapheme attributes such as meaning (including semantic relations among abstract concepts) and sounds, and the development of lexicon and changes in lexical representation of graphemes may affect the synaesthetic colours.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Asano & Yokosawa [10] showed that synaesthetic colours elicited by Kanji characters (characters of Japanese logographic script) representing a concrete meaning or an object with typical colours, such as 'red', 'blood' and 'cherry blossoms', are likely to be very consistent with the meaning. Similarly, Mankin & Simner demonstrated that synaesthetic colours for English alphabets can be predicted in part by early-learned letterword associations-for example, the synaesthetic colour for the letter 'A' tends to be red because A is for apple and apples are typically red ( [13]; but also see [31] which suggests that this effect may be language-specific). However, this type of semantic account can be applied only to graphemes that are tied to concrete meanings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Such regularities provide important clues for clarifying mechanisms underlying synaesthesia. Previous studies have shown that psycholinguistic factors, such as grapheme frequency or familiarity [11,27,28], visual shape [12,15,29], grapheme sound [9][10][11]30], positions in a grapheme sequence (ordinality, [11,15,28,31]), and meaning or concepts [10,13,32], contribute to forming the synaesthetic colours for graphemes, suggesting that grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a fundamentally psycholinguistic phenomenon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Synaesthetic colour associations for Japanese Kanji characters: from the perspective of grapheme learning

Asano

Takahashi

Tsushiro

et al. 2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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One of the fundamental questions about grapheme–colour synaesthesia is how specific associations between the graphemes and colours are formed. We addressed this question by focusing on the determinants of synaesthetic colours for Japanese Kanji characters (logographic characters) using a psycholinguistic approach. Study 1 explored the influence meaning has on synaesthetic colours for Kanji characters representing abstract meanings by examining synaesthetic colours for antonym pairs (i.e. characters with meanings opposed to each other) in Japanese synaesthetes. Results showed that semantic relations influenced the grapheme–colour associations for characters representing abstract meanings in the early stages of learning abstract Kanji, while the influence was reduced in the grapheme–colour associations for those learned later. Study 2 examined the effect that learning new sounds or meanings of graphemes has on synaesthetic colours for those graphemes. Japanese synaesthetes were taught new sounds or new meanings for familiar Kanji characters. Results indicated that acquiring new information for graphemes slightly but significantly reduced the test–retest grapheme–colour association consistency, suggesting that synaesthetic colours can be modulated to reflect the synaesthete's latest knowledge about graphemes. Implications of these findings are discussed from the perspective of the relationship between synaesthesia and grapheme learning. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia’.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Synaesthetic colour associations for Japanese Kanji characters: from the perspective of grapheme learning

Asano

Takahashi

Tsushiro

et al. 2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…When choosing the associations to be trained, we selected non-random letter-color pairings based on associations that are found for some synesthetes, as well as for nonsynesthetes when they are forced to select colors for letters (cf. Mankin & Simner, 2017; PERCEPTUAL PHENOMENOLOGY AND CORTICAL PLASTICITY 34 Simner et al, 2005). This design choice was made in order to maximize the likelihood of training success, in line with (and indeed replicating) our previous study (Bor et al, 2014; see also Supplemental Results).…”

Section: Control Studies and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coordinated neural, behavioral, and phenomenological changes in perceptual plasticity through overtraining of synesthetic associations

et al. 2018

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Synesthesia is associated with additional perceptual experiences, which are automatically and consistently triggered by specific inducing stimuli. Synesthesia is also accompanied by more general sensory and cortical changes, including enhanced modality-specific cortical excitability. Extensive cognitive training has been shown to generate synesthesia-like phenomenology but whether these experiences are accompanied by neurophysiological changes characteristic of synesthesia remains unknown. Addressing this question provides a unique opportunity to elucidate the neural basis of perceptual plasticity relevant to conscious experiences. Here we investigate whether extensive training of letter-color associations leads not only to synesthetic experiences, but also to changes in cortical excitability. We confirm that overtraining synesthetic associations results in synesthetic phenomenology. Stroop tasks further reveal synesthesia-like performance following training. Electroencephalography and transcranial magnetic stimulation show, respectively, enhanced visual evoked potentials (in response to untrained patterns) and lower phosphene thresholds, demonstrating specific cortical changes. An active (using letter-symbol training) and a passive control confirmed these results were due to letter-color training and not simply to repeated testing. Summarizing, we demonstrate specific cortical changes, following training-induced acquisition of synesthetic phenomenology that are characteristic of genuine synesthesia. Collectively, our data reveal dramatic plasticity in human visual perception, expressed through a coordinated set of behavioral, neurophysiological, and phenomenological changes.

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“…This question becomes even more relevant when considering that grapheme-colour associations are not unique to synaesthetes: non-synaesthetes, when forced to choose a colour for a grapheme, share some patterns of graphemecolour associations with synaesthetes [22][23][24]. However, studies comparing synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes show that while some patterns of grapheme-colour associations are shared, others are unique to synaesthetes or non-synaesthetes [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Echoes from the past: synaesthetic colour associations reflect childhood gender stereotypes

Root

Dobkins

Ramachandran

et al. 2019

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Grapheme–colour synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which linguistic symbols evoke consistent colour sensations. Synaesthesia is believed to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors, but how these factors interact to create specific associations in specific individuals is poorly understood. In this paper, we show that a grapheme–colour association in adult synaesthetes can be traced to a particular environmental effect at a particular moment in childhood. We propose a model in which specific grapheme–colour associations are ‘locked in’ during development in children predisposed to become synaesthetes, whereas grapheme–colour associations remain flexible in non-synaesthetes. We exploit Western gender–colour stereotypes to test our model: we found that young girls in general tend to associate their first initial with the colour pink. Consistent with our model, adult female synaesthetes are influenced by their childhood environment: they associate their first initial with pink. Adult female non-synaesthetes do not show this bias. Instead, in our study, non-synaesthetes tended to associate their first initial with their current favourite colour. The results thus support the ‘locking in’ model of synaesthesia, suggesting that synaesthetic associations can be used as a ‘time capsule’, revealing childhood influences on adult linguistic associations. Grapheme–colour synaesthesia may thus offer an extraordinary opportunity to study linguistic development. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia’.

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A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter–Word Associations in the Development of Grapheme–Colour Synaesthesia

Cited by 24 publications

References 62 publications

Synaesthetic colour associations for Japanese Kanji characters: from the perspective of grapheme learning

Synaesthetic colour associations for Japanese Kanji characters: from the perspective of grapheme learning

Coordinated neural, behavioral, and phenomenological changes in perceptual plasticity through overtraining of synesthetic associations

Echoes from the past: synaesthetic colour associations reflect childhood gender stereotypes

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