Timbre-colour synaesthesia: Exploring the consistency of associations based on timbre

Menouti, Konstantina; Akiva-Kabiri, Lilach; Banissy, Michael J.

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2014.08.009

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(10 reference statements)

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“…Research on crossmodal correspondences between sound and color has a long history in the field of experimental psychology. Crossmodal correspondences between color and auditory stimuli are well-established in the literature, especially in synesthetes ( Karwoski, Odbert & Osgood, 1942 ; Cytowic, 2002 ; Day, 2005 ; Ward, Huckstep & Tsakanikos, 2006 ; Hänggi et al, 2008 ; Spector & Maurer, 2009 ; Menouti et al, 2015 ; Farina, Mitchell & Roche, 2016 ). For example, most synesthetes tend to associate high pitch sounds with light colors—middle ‘C’ on a piano might be red but the note three octaves higher might be green.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics

Han

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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Based on the existing research on sound symbolism and crossmodal correspondence, this study proposed an extended research on cross-modal correspondence between various sound attributes and color properties in a group of non-synesthetes. In Experiment 1, we assessed the associations between each property of sounds and colors. Twenty sounds with five auditory properties (pitch, roughness, sharpness, tempo and discontinuity), each varied in four levels, were used as the sound stimuli. Forty-nine colors with different hues, saturation and brightness were used to match to those sounds. Result revealed that besides pitch and tempo, roughness and sharpness also played roles in sound-color correspondence. Reaction times of sound-hue were a little longer than the reaction times of sound-lightness. In Experiment 2, a speeded target discrimination task was used to assess whether the associations between sound attributes and color properties could invoke natural cross-modal correspondence and improve participants’ cognitive efficiency in cognitive tasks. Several typical sound-color pairings were selected according to the results of Experiment 1. Participants were divided into two groups (congruent and incongruent). In each trial participants had to judge whether the presented color could appropriately be associated with the sound stimuli. Result revealed that participants responded more quickly and accurately in the congruent group than in the incongruent group. It was also found that there was no significant difference in reaction times and error rates between sound-hue and sound-lightness. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 indicate the existence of a robust crossmodal correspondence between multiple attributes of sound and color, which also has strong influence on cognitive tasks. The inconsistency of the reaction times between sound-hue and sound-lightness in Experiment 1 and 2 is probably owing to the difference in experimental protocol, which indicates that the complexity of experiment design may be an important factor in crossmodal correspondence phenomena.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics

Han

et al. 2018

PeerJ

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“…In fact, long before Kandinsky came out with his suggestions concerning the crossmodal association between the sound of a trumpet and the colour scarlet (see Kandinsky, 1977 ), both Locke ( 1690 ) and Leibniz (1704/ 1896 ) had already put forward essentially the same crossmodal mapping when considering the experience of a blind man. The composer Raff also reported that he perceived the colour of the sound of the trumpet to be scarlet (other people apparently report it to be bright red; Ortmann, 1933 ), while, for Kandinsky, the sound of the tuba was also red (see also Anikin & Johansson, 2019 ; Donnell-Kotrozo, 1978 ; Ginsberg, 1923 , p. 589; Menouti et al, 2015 ; Reuter et al, 2018b ). Other contemporary researchers, meanwhile, have chosen to study the correspondences between timbre and shape (see Adeli et al, 2014 ; Gurman et al, 2021 ) or harmony (namely, consonance and dissonance) and visual roughness (Giannos et al, 2021 ; see Di Stefano & Spence, 2022 , for a review on multisensory roughness, and Di Stefano et al, 2022b for a review on consonance and dissonance) (Table 3 ).…”

Section: Putative Mechanisms Underlying Sensory Translationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(NB. Pitch change may introduce loudness difference) Turned into polar mapping between low vs. high pitch, and round vs. angular shape (Marks, 1987a ; Parise & Spence, 2012 ; Wellek, 1927 ) Timbre (No obvious organizational principle) No evidence Anikin & Johansson ( 2019 ); Donnell-Kotrozo ( 1978 ); Menouti et al ( 2015 ); Mudge ( 1920 ); Reuter et al ( 2018a ) Adeli et al ( 2014 ); Gurman et al ( 2021 ); (NB. Smith & Sera, 1992 , suggest that shape is a metathetic dimension) …”

Section: Putative Mechanisms Underlying Sensory Translationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory translation between audition and vision

Spence,

Di Stefano

2023

Psychon Bull Rev

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Across the millennia, and across a range of disciplines, there has been a widespread desire to connect, or translate between, the senses in a manner that is meaningful, rather than arbitrary. Early examples were often inspired by the vivid, yet mostly idiosyncratic, crossmodal matches expressed by synaesthetes, often exploited for aesthetic purposes by writers, artists, and composers. A separate approach comes from those academic commentators who have attempted to translate between structurally similar dimensions of perceptual experience (such as pitch and colour). However, neither approach has succeeded in delivering consensually agreed crossmodal matches. As such, an alternative approach to sensory translation is needed. In this narrative historical review, focusing on the translation between audition and vision, we attempt to shed light on the topic by addressing the following three questions: (1) How is the topic of sensory translation related to synaesthesia, multisensory integration, and crossmodal associations? (2) Are there common processing mechanisms across the senses that can help to guarantee the success of sensory translation, or, rather, is mapping among the senses mediated by allegedly universal (e.g., amodal) stimulus dimensions? (3) Is the term ‘translation’ in the context of cross-sensory mappings used metaphorically or literally? Given the general mechanisms and concepts discussed throughout the review, the answers we come to regarding the nature of audio-visual translation are likely to apply to the translation between other perhaps less-frequently studied modality pairings as well.

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“…It is, though, worth stressing how many of the artists working in the field of colour-music (not to mention many of the prominent research scientists working in the area) have, over the years, been distracted by the search for crossmodal mappings between musical features and colour (and/or form) in the idiosyncratic experiences reported by synaesthetes (see Donnell-Kotrozo, 1978;Galeyev, 1976Galeyev, , 2003Itoh et al, 2017;Kandinsky, 1977;von Erhardt-Siebold, 1932;Zilczer, 1987). 11 Indeed, the florid concurrents that have so often been experienced, and reported, by coloured-hearing synaesthetes have undoubtedly helped to raise awareness/interest in crossmodal mappings between this particular pair of sensory attributes (Hänggi et al, 2008;Menouti et al, 2015). In recent decades, the growing interest in sensory substitution systems/devices (e.g., for the blind) has also drawn attention to the question of how best to 'translate' visual attributes, such as colour, into sound in an intuitively meaningful manner (see Hamilton-Fletcher et al, 2016;Marks, 1983; see also Lupton, 2018).…”

Section: On the Popularity Of Colour-sound Correspondencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coloured hearing, colour music, colour organs, and the search for perceptually meaningful correspondences between colour and sound

Spence

Stefano

2022

i-Perception

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There has long been interest in the nature of the relationship(s) between hue and pitch or, in other words, between colour and musical/pure tones, stretching back at least as far as Newton, Goethe, Helmholtz, and beyond. In this narrative historical review, we take a closer look at the motivations that have lain behind the various assertions that have been made in the literature concerning the analogies, and possible perceptual similarities, between colour and sound. During the last century, a number of experimental psychologists have also investigated the nature of the correspondence between these two primary dimensions of perceptual experience. The multitude of different crossmodal mappings that have been put forward over the centuries are summarized, and a distinction drawn between physical/structural and psychological correspondences. The latter being further sub-divided into perceptual and affective categories. Interest in physical correspondences has typically been motivated by the structural similarities (analogous mappings) between the organization of perceptible dimensions of auditory and visual experience. Emphasis has been placed both on the similarity in terms of the number of basic categories into which pitch and colour can be arranged and also on the fact that both can be conceptualized as circular dimensions. A distinction is drawn between those commentators who have argued for a dimensional alignment of pitch and hue (based on a structural mapping), and those who appear to have been motivated by the existence of specific correspondences between particular pairs of auditory and visual stimuli instead (often, as we will see, based on the idiosyncratic correspondences that have been reported by synaesthetes). Ultimately, though, the emotional-mediation account would currently appear to provide the most parsimonious account for whatever affinity the majority of people experience between musical sounds and colour.

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Timbre-colour synaesthesia: Exploring the consistency of associations based on timbre

Cited by 6 publications

References 8 publications

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics

An extended research of crossmodal correspondence between color and sound in psychology and cognitive ergonomics

Sensory translation between audition and vision

Coloured hearing, colour music, colour organs, and the search for perceptually meaningful correspondences between colour and sound

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