Language use statistics and prototypical grapheme colours predict synaesthetes' and non-synaesthetes' word-colour associations

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dc.contributor.authorGoodhew, Stephanie Catherine
dc.contributor.authorKidd, Evan
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-20T03:45:20Z
dc.date.available2017-01-20T03:45:20Z
dc.date.issued2016-12-23
dc.description.abstractSynaesthesia is the neuropsychological phenomenon in which individuals experience unusual sensory associations, such as experiencing particular colours in response to particular words. While it was once thought the particular pairings between stimuli were arbitrary and idiosyncratic to particular synaesthetes, there is now growing evidence for a systematic psycholinguistic basis to the associations. Here we sought to assess the explanatory value of quantifiable lexical association measures (via latent semantic analysis; LSA) in the pairings observed between words and colours in synaesthesia. To test this, we had synaesthetes report the particular colours they experienced in response to given concept words, and found that language association between the concept and colour words provided highly reliable predictors of the reported pairings. These results provide convergent evidence for a psycholinguistic basis to synaesthesia, but in a novel way, showing that exposure to particular patterns of associations in language can predict the formation of particular synaesthetic lexical-colour associations. Consistent with previous research, the prototypical synaesthetic colour for the first letter of the word also played a role in shaping the colour for the whole word, and this effect also interacted with language association, such that the effect of the colour for the first letter was stronger as the association between the concept word and the colour word in language increased. Moreover, when a group of non-synaesthetes were asked what colours they associated with the concept words, they produced very similar reports to the synaesthetes that were predicted by both language association and prototypical synaesthetic colour for the first letter of the word. This points to a shared linguistic experience generating the associations for both groups.en_AU
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_AU
dc.identifier.issn0001-6918en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/111990
dc.provenancehttps://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/1725..."Published version can be made open access in any repository with CC BY-NC-ND license" from SHERPA/ROMEO site (as at 11.11.2021)
dc.publisherElsevieren_AU
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/CE140100041en_AU
dc.relationhttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE140101734en_AU
dc.rights© 2016 Elsevier B.V.en_AU
dc.rights.licenseCC BY-NC-ND
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.sourceActa psychologicaen_AU
dc.subjectlanguageen_AU
dc.subjectlanguage statisticsen_AU
dc.subjectpsycholinguisticsen_AU
dc.subjectsynaesthesiaen_AU
dc.subjectsynesthesiaen_AU
dc.titleLanguage use statistics and prototypical grapheme colours predict synaesthetes' and non-synaesthetes' word-colour associationsen_AU
dc.typeJournal articleen_AU
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage86en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage73en_AU
local.contributor.affiliationGoodhew, S. C., Research School of Psychology, The Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationKidd, E. Research School of Psychology, The Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.authoremailstephanie.goodhew@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.contributor.authoremailevan.kidd@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.contributor.authoruidu4477319en_AU
local.identifier.citationvolume173en_AU
local.identifier.doi10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.12.008en_AU
local.identifier.essn1873-6297en_AU
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByu4477319en_AU
local.publisher.urlhttp://www.elsevier.com/en_AU
local.type.statusPublished Versionen_AU

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