Back to the future: synaesthesia could be due to associative learning

Yon, Daniel; Press, Clare

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00702

Cited by 19 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Some have suggested that other kinds of synaesthesia reflect memory of stimuli in their environment, for example exposure to coloured letters for grapheme-colour synaesthetes (Witthoft, Winawer, & Eagleman, 2015;Yon & Press, 2014). Galton's claim was that spatial forms were constructed by the child from the spoken word sequences and subsequently remembered or forgotten, rather than learned from the environment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The prevalence and cognitive profile of sequence-space synaesthesia

Ward

Ipser

Phanvanova

et al. 2018

Consciousness and Cognition

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People with sequence-space synaesthesia visualize sequential concepts such as numbers and time as an ordered pattern extending through space. Unlike other types of synaesthesia, there is no generally agreed objective method for diagnosing this variant or separating it from potentially related aspects of cognition. We use a recently-developed spatial consistency test together with a novel questionnaire on naïve samples and estimate the prevalence of sequence-space synaesthesia to be around 8.1% (Study 1) to 12.8% (Study 2). We validate our test by showing that participants classified as having sequence-space synaesthesia perform differently on lab-based tasks. They show a spatial Stroop-like interference response, they show enhanced detection of low visibility Gabor stimuli, they report more use of visual imagery, and improved memory for certain types of public events. We suggest that sequence-space synaesthesia develops from a particular neurocognitive profile linked both to greater visual imagery and enhanced visual perception.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…relating to the learning and retention of associations (e.g. Yon & Press, 2014)? Does it depend strongly on mechanisms of visual perception (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The prevalence and cognitive profile of sequence-space synaesthesia

Ward

Ipser

Phanvanova

et al. 2018

Consciousness and Cognition

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“…A second nuance comes from recent demonstrations of the potential to train adults to acquire synaesthetic experiences (as measured by subjective reports and conditioning), which seems to suggest that that individuals can be moved along a continuum. If this is the case, we still need to see whether training really bridges the gap between the two clusters of manifestations, or whether individuals are led to acquire, for a short duration, a totally distinct kind of condition (Bor et al, 2014;Colizoli et al, 2014 a, b;Yon & Press, 2014;see Deroy & Spence, 2013c, for a discussion). Kiki' or Mil', usually presented auditorily) with angular and small shapes, usually presented visually (see Köhler, 1929Köhler, , 1947Sapir, 1929;Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001).…”

Section: Conclusion: Learning From the Discontinuitiesmentioning

confidence: 96%

Lessons of synaesthesia for consciousness: Learning from the exception, rather than the general

Deroy

Spence

2016

Neuropsychologia

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“…Some theorists have argued that such trends demonstrate that synaesthesia is caused by learning. For example, it has been claimed that "semantic mechanisms may be responsible for generating some forms of synaesthesia" (Mroczko-Wasowicz and Nikoliü, 2014), or that "synaesthesia could be due to associative learning" (Yon and Press, 2014). The latter reference goes on to speculate that "the atypical correspondences seen in synaesthesia could be accounted for if this group are "fast learners" -requiring fewer pairings or weaker contingencies to form associations between stimulus features".…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%