Do you know anybody who experience synesthesia ? Also known as “ synesthetes , ” they ’re hoi polloi whose cognitive pathways have become hugger-mugger , such that they associate ostensibly unrelated dope or genial states with other senses or experience — hearing semblance , for example , or tasting sounds .
Scientists still are n’t sure what gives rise to this unknown phenomenon and its various iteration , but new inquiry suggests that people who experience grapheme → color synesthesia ( one of the more vulgar forms of the condition , wherein letters and numbers are assort with specific chromaticity ) , may have Fischer Price to give thanks for their embroiled sensory experiences .
Elizabeth Preston explainsover on Inkfish :
Stanford researchers Nathan Witthoft and Jonathan Winawer discovered , through word of mouth and from synesthetes contacting them online , a group of people who share a “ startlingly alike ” set of varsity letter - color associations . Out of the eleven subject , ten call up owning ( or still owned ) a exceptional circle of alphabet refrigerator magnets that was make up in the 1970s and 1980s .
The leftmost column below ( label “ set ” ) shows the real colour of this toy . The colors that the eleven subjects associate with the alphabet are list as S1 through S11 , in order of how well they pit the magnetic letter . ( And to the right are the attractor themselves . )
Subject S1 was carrying around mentally a perfect replica of the Fisher - Price letters , as [ psychologists Nathan Witthoft and Jonathan Winawer ] report in Psychological Science . The others had some difference - but were close enough to the toy ’s colors that , the research worker figure , it ca n’t be a coincidence .
The findings total to a mature torso of grounds that alphabetic character / color associations and other course of synaesthesia , can be learned , or nurtured by psychologically outside ethnic influences . This has been a long - stand suspicion among some synesthesia investigator , though many have remain skeptical . “ The first objection , ” spell Witthoft and Winawer , “ is that synesthesia is perception rather than memory . The 2nd is that learning alone can not explain why only some people become synesthetes . Finally , it can be objected that most synesthetic pairing are not learned . ”
In the discussion part of their report , Witthoft and Winawer make a compelling ( and enjoyably crystal clear ) case for the role of learning and memory in synesthesia . you’re able to contain it outin the latest issue of Psychological Science — free of charge !
take more from Preston over on Inkfish .
BiologyEvolutionNeurosciencePsychologySciencesynesthesia
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
intelligence from the time to come , deliver to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
