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Updated: May 24, 2026

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
Published on: June 29, 2021
Implicit phonetic symbolism in voicing of consonants and visual lightness using Garner's speeded classification task
Sachiko Hirata1, Jun Ukita, Shinichi Kita
1Kobe University, Department of Humanities, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 657-8501 Japan. shirata@lit.kobe-u.ac.jp
Abstract:
The present study examines implicit phonetic symbolism which posits that arbitrary linguistic sound is related to certain aspects of characteristics of other modalities, such as color, touch, or emotion. In consonant discrimination and lightness discrimination using Garner's speeded classification paradigm, spoken sounds (voiced/voiceless consonants) and lightness of visual stimuli (black/white squares) were systematically varied to assess cross-modal interactions. Congruent audio-visual pairs (voiced consonants and black, and between voiceless consonants and white) facilitated consonant discrimination. In lightness discrimination, no congruent facilitation or congruence effect was observed. These results indicated that cross-modal interactions in implicit phonetic symbolism can be found in correlations between linguistic spoken sounds and visual lightness.
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