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Related Experiment Video

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Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

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Published on: February 20, 2014

When "3" is a jerk and "E" is a king: personifying inanimate objects in synesthesia.

Daniel Smilek¹, Kelly A Malcolmson, Jonathan S A Carriere

¹Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. dsmilek@uwaterloo.ca

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

|June 1, 2007

Summary

This case study reveals object-personality synesthesia, where an individual perceives inanimate objects with distinct personalities. These consistent, detailed personifications influence visual attention and offer insights into synesthesia.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology
Neurology

Background:

Synesthesia is a neurological condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.
Object-personality synesthesia, a rare form, involves experiencing inanimate objects as having distinct personalities.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the characteristics of object-personality synesthesia in a case study (TE).
To explore the consistency, detail, and potential influence of these synesthetic experiences on cognitive processes like visual attention.
To propose a neural model for both normal and synesthetic personification.

Main Methods:

Case study methodology focusing on an individual (TE) with object-personality synesthesia.
Test-retest assessments for consistency of object-personality pairings, including novel objects.
Qualitative analysis of personality descriptions.
Eye-tracking experiments to assess the influence of emotional associations on visual attention.

Main Results:

TE exhibited stable and consistent object-personality pairings across test-retest, even for novel stimuli.
Personality descriptions were detailed and multi-dimensional, with differences noted between familiar and novel objects.
Emotional associations with letters and numbers biased TE's eye movements, indicating an influence on visual attention.

Conclusions:

Synesthesia can manifest as complex semantic personifications of inanimate objects.
Object-personality synesthesia can significantly influence visual attention and cognitive processing.
The findings support a neural model explaining both typical and atypical personification processes.