Touching words is not enough: How visual experience influences haptic–auditory associations in the “Bouba–Kiki” effect

Fryer, Louise; Freeman, Jonathan; Pring, Linda

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2014.03.015

Cited by 73 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…For the blind, long-term adoption of audiovisual sensory substitution technology has led to auditory stimulation producing visual experiences in the blind (Ward and Meijer, 2010), in essence creating a practical form of acquired synaesthesia (Ward and Wright, 2014). While the present findings illustrate some of the ways visual and auditory dimensions are associated in sighted individuals, understanding the role that visual experience plays in correspondences has large implications for how specific correspondences operate and are altered by visual deprivation (Deroy et al, 2016;Fryer et al, 2014). These findings in turn also have important implications for creating intuitive visual-assistive devices across different user groups, such as the early-blind, late-blind, partiallysighted and those transitioning into sight loss (Hamilton-Fletcher et al, 2016c).…”

Section: Correspondences and Sensory Substitutionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Sound Properties Associated With Equiluminant Colours

et al. 2017

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There is a widespread tendency to associate certain properties of sound with those of colour (e.g., higher pitches with lighter colours). Yet it is an open question how sound influences chroma or hue when properly controlling for lightness. To examine this, we asked participants to adjust physically equiluminant colours until they ‘went best’ with certain sounds. For pure tones, complex sine waves and vocal timbres, increases in frequency were associated with increases in chroma. Increasing the loudness of pure tones also increased chroma. Hue associations varied depending on the type of stimuli. In stimuli that involved only limited bands of frequencies (pure tones, vocal timbres), frequency correlated with hue, such that low frequencies gave blue hues and progressed to yellow hues at 800 Hz. Increasing the loudness of a pure tone was also associated with a shift from blue to yellow. However, for complex sounds that share the same bandwidth of frequencies (100–3200 Hz) but that vary in terms of which frequencies have the most power, all stimuli were associated with yellow hues. This suggests that the presence of high frequencies (above 800 Hz) consistently yields yellow hues. Overall we conclude that while pitch–chroma associations appear to flexibly re-apply themselves across a variety of contexts, frequencies above 800 Hz appear to produce yellow hues irrespective of context. These findings reveal new sound–colour correspondences previously obscured through not controlling for lightness. Findings are discussed in relation to understanding the underlying rules of cross-modal correspondences, synaesthesia, and optimising the sensory substitution of visual information through sound.

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Section: Correspondences and Sensory Substitutionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Sound Properties Associated With Equiluminant Colours

et al. 2017

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“…Other differences have recently been shown in the classical sound symbolic 'Bouba-Kiki' task (Fryer et al, 2014) as well as in SNARC effects (Crollen et al, 2013). The present study should help to develop user-centred methodologies, accounting for a diversity of potential users (e.g.…”

Section: General Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Differentiated audio-tactile correspondences in sighted and blind individuals.

Deroy¹,

Fasiello²,

Hayward³

et al. 2016

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Perfor

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The aim of the present study is to investigate whether the crossmodal correspondence robustly documented between auditory pitch and visual elevation has analogues in the audio-tactile domain. Across 4 experiments, the compatibility effects between intuitively congruent pairs of stimuli (i.e., outward tactile movement, going from the inside of the finger toward the fingertip and increasing pitch, or inward tactile movement and decreasing pitch) and incongruent pairs stimuli (i.e., the reverse associations) were measured. Two methods were compared to assess the behavioral effects of such a correspondence: One where participants have to respond to either the auditory or tactile stimulus presented simultaneously, while ignoring the other (speeded classification task), and the other where the auditory and tactile stimuli are presented sequentially and associated to different response buttons (implicit association test). No significant compatibility effect was observed under the speeded classification task. The implicit association test revealed a significant compatibility effect. This effect was similar in the conditions where the finger was placed vertically and horizontally. However, this implicit association between pitch and tactile movements was not observed in blind participants. These results have methodological implications for the explanation and testing of crossmodal correspondences, and the origin of the widely discussed association between pitch and vertical elevation.

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“…Results showed that visual imagery plays a large role in facilitating this haptic and auditory mapping in the absence of actual visual stimuli as the effects were proportionately less pronounced in visually impaired subjects [27]. Japanese subjects show reliable colour shape associations which are likely developed through early language experiences.…”

Section: Kiki-bouba and The Helping Sensesmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Kiki-Bouba Paradigm : Where Senses Meet And Greet

Shukla¹

2016

IJMH

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Humans have the ability to think in abstract ways. Experiments over the last 90 years have shown that stimuli from the external world can be evaluated on an abstract spectrum with 'Kiki' on one end and 'Bouba' on the other. People are in concordance with each other with respect to calling a jagged-edgysharp bordered two dimensional shape 'Kiki' and a curvy-smooth-round two dimensional shape 'Bouba'.. The proclivity of this correspondence is ubiquitous. Moreover, the Kiki-Bouba phenomenon seems to represent a non-arbitrary abstract connection between 2 or more stimuli. Studies have shown that crossmodal associations between and withinaudioception, opthalmoception, tactioception and gustatoception can be demonstrated by using Kiki-Bouba as a cognitive 'convergence point'. This review includes a critical assessment of the methods, findings, limitations, plausible explanations and future directions involving the Kiki-Bouba effect. Applications include creatingtreatments and training methods to compensate for poor abstract thinking abilities caused by disorders like schizophrenia and autism, for example. Continuing research in this area would help building a universal model of consciousness that fully incorporates cross-sensory perception at the biological and cognitive levels.

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Touching words is not enough: How visual experience influences haptic–auditory associations in the “Bouba–Kiki” effect

Cited by 73 publications

References 36 publications

Sound Properties Associated With Equiluminant Colours

Sound Properties Associated With Equiluminant Colours

Differentiated audio-tactile correspondences in sighted and blind individuals.

The Kiki-Bouba Paradigm : Where Senses Meet And Greet

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