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Synesthesia and number cognition in children

Jennifer A K Green1, Usha Goswami

  • 1Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2PQ, UK. jakg2@cam.ac.uk

Cognition
|March 14, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Children with grapheme-color synesthesia experience challenges in numerical tasks when digit colors conflict with their perceptions. This involuntary synesthesia impacts numerical cognition in children.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Developmental neuroscience
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Grapheme-color synesthesia, where digits trigger color experiences (photisms), is consistent and involuntary in adults.
  • Previous research has not systematically investigated synesthesia in children.
  • Synesthesia is linked to number concept in adult cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically investigate grapheme-color synesthesia in children aged 7–15 years.
  • To determine if synesthesia impacts numerical cognition in children.
  • To compare grapheme-color synesthesia with phoneme-color synesthesia in children's numerical tasks.

Main Methods:

  • A systematic study involving children aged 7–15 years.
  • Assessment of involuntary difficulties in numerical tasks.
  • Presentation of digits in colors congruent and incongruent with participants' photisms.

Main Results:

  • Children with grapheme-color synesthesia experienced involuntary difficulties in numerical tasks when digit colors were incongruent with their photisms.
  • Children with phoneme-color synesthesia did not show these difficulties.
  • The findings suggest a link between synesthesia and numerical cognition in children.

Conclusions:

  • Grapheme-color synesthesia in children is involuntary and affects numerical task performance.
  • Synesthesia in children has significant implications for understanding numerical cognition.
  • This study highlights the importance of considering synesthesia in developmental studies of cognition.

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