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Updated: Jun 17, 2026
10:27
Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
Published on: February 20, 2014
Immediate transfer of synesthesia to a novel inducer
Aleksandra Mroczko1, Thomas Metzinger, Wolf Singer
1University of Mainz, Department of Philosophy, Mainz, Germany. mroczko@mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de
Journal of Vision
|January 8, 2010
Summary
Synesthetic associations between graphemes and colors can transfer to new symbols after just a 10-minute writing exercise. This rapid learning and generalization suggest synesthesia is more flexible than previously thought.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Linguistics
Background:
- Synesthesia involves consistent, automatic associations between stimuli and perceptions, typically formed in childhood.
- Existing synesthetic associations can extend to new stimuli, such as learning a new writing system.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the time course of synesthetic association transfer to novel graphemes.
- To determine if synesthetic learning is rapid and generalizes to new handwriting.
Main Methods:
- Participants engaged in a 10-minute writing exercise with novel Glagolitic graphemes.
- A Stroop task was used to objectively measure the creation of novel grapheme-color associations.
- Generalization was tested using graphemes handwritten by another person.
Main Results:
- Grapheme-color associations transferred to novel graphemes after a brief 10-minute writing exercise.
- Synesthetic associations were often experienced immediately after learning new graphemes.
- Objective evidence from a Stroop task confirmed novel associations and their generalization to others' handwriting.
Conclusions:
- Synesthesia demonstrates significant plasticity, with rapid learning and generalization of associations.
- The findings suggest synesthetic associations originate at the semantic level, activating perceptual representations.
- Synesthesia is a more flexible phenomenon than previously understood.
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