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Related Concept Videos

Synesthesia01:27

Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a remarkable condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People with synesthesia experience a blending or crossing of their senses, such as sight and sound, leading to cross-modal sensations. In this condition, the stimulation of one sense, such as hearing a number or musical note, triggers an experience of another sense, like sensing a specific color, taste, or smell. People...
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2026

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color
10:27

Training Synesthetic Letter-color Associations by Reading in Color

Published on: February 20, 2014

Second-order mappings in grapheme-color synesthesia.

Marcus R Watson1, Kathleen A Akins, James T Enns

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada. marcusw@psych.ubc.ca

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|January 11, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Grapheme-color synesthesia shows stronger patterns when considering letter shape and position, not just frequency. These associations are learned independently and linked to specific color dimensions like hue and luminance.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Sensory Perception

Background:

  • Grapheme-color synesthesia involves experiencing colors associated with letters or numbers.
  • Previous research focused on letter-color associations based on frequency.
  • Order in synesthesia has been explored through statistical analysis of common associations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate stronger associations in grapheme-color synesthesia by examining second-order similarity mappings.
  • To explore relationships between synesthetic colors and letter shape, frequency, and alphabetical position.
  • To determine if these mappings are independent and linked to specific color dimensions.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of second-order similarity mappings in grapheme-color synesthesia.
  • Examining relationships between synesthetic colors and letter attributes (shape, frequency, position).
  • Statistical analysis to determine independence and dimensionality of color associations.

Main Results:

  • Stronger associations found when considering second-order similarity (letter shape, frequency, position).
  • These relationships were independent of each other.
  • Letter shape and ordinality linked to hue; letter frequency linked to luminance.
  • Synesthetic associations appear to be acquired during alphabet learning.

Conclusions:

  • Synesthetic associations are acquired independently and idiosyncratically as the alphabet is learned.
  • Learned associations involve letter shape, ordinality, and frequency.
  • These findings suggest synesthetic associations follow principles common to other cognitive and perceptual domains.