1
|
Root N, Asano M, Melero H, Kim CY, Sidoroff-Dorso AV, Vatakis A, Yokosawa K, Ramachandran V, Rouw R. Do the colors of your letters depend on your language? Language-dependent and universal influences on grapheme-color synesthesia in seven languages. Conscious Cogn 2021; 95:103192. [PMID: 34500326 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103192] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2020] [Revised: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 08/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Grapheme-color synesthetes experience graphemes as having a consistent color (e.g., "N is turquoise"). Synesthetes' specific associations (which letter is which color) are often influenced by linguistic properties such as phonetic similarity, color terms ("Y is yellow"), and semantic associations ("D is for dog and dogs are brown"). However, most studies of synesthesia use only English-speaking synesthetes. Here, we measure the effect of color terms, semantic associations, and non-linguistic shape-color associations on synesthetic associations in Dutch, English, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. The effect size of linguistic influences (color terms, semantic associations) differed significantly between languages. In contrast, the effect size of non-linguistic influences (shape-color associations), which we predicted to be universal, indeed did not differ between languages. We conclude that language matters (outcomes are influenced by the synesthete's language) and that synesthesia offers an exceptional opportunity to study influences on letter representations in different languages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas Root
- Brain and Cognition, Psychology Department, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129-B, 1018 WT Amsterdam, Netherlands.
| | - Michiko Asano
- Department of Psychology, College of Contemporary Psychology, Rikkyo University, 1-2-26 Kitano, Niiza, Saitama 352-8558, Japan
| | - Helena Melero
- Department of Psychobiology and Methodology in Behavioral Sciences, Faculty of Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Av. Séneca, 2, 28040 Madrid, Spain
| | - Chai-Youn Kim
- Department of Psychology, Korea University, 145 Anam-ro, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
| | - Anton V Sidoroff-Dorso
- Department of Psychology, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow 119435, Russia; Centre of Interdisciplinary Research of Contemporary Childhood, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow 123290, Russia
| | - Argiro Vatakis
- Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 136 Syngrou Ave., 17671 Athens, Greece
| | - Kazuhiko Yokosawa
- Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
| | - Vilayanur Ramachandran
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, San Diego, CA 92093, United States
| | - Romke Rouw
- Brain and Cognition, Psychology Department, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129-B, 1018 WT Amsterdam, Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Fisher SE, Tilot AK. Bridging senses: novel insights from synaesthesia. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 374:20190022. [PMID: 31630657 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Simon E Fisher
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Amanda K Tilot
- Language and Genetics Department, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.,Imaging Genetics Center, Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|