Effect of a Synesthete's Photisms on Name Recall

Mills, Carol Bergfeld; Innis, Joanne; Westendorf, Taryn; Owsianiecki, Lauren; McDonald, Angela

doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70340-x

Cited by 50 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…They found that the GC synesthetes had superior memory for word lists as compared to the nonsynesthetes. On the basis of this finding, Radvansky et al concluded that GCS can enhance memory capacity for word lists because the photisms that are elicited by the orthography of each word can be used as retrieval cues by those who experience them (see also Mills, Innis, Westendorf, Owsianiecki, & McDonald, 2006;Smilek, Dixon, Cudahy, & Merikle, 2002;Ward, 2008).…”

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Grapheme–color synesthesia can enhance immediate memory without disrupting the encoding of relational cues

et al. 2012

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Previous evidence has suggested that graphemecolor synesthesia can enhance memory for words, but little is known about how these photisms cue retrieval. Often, the encoding of specific features of individual words can disrupt the encoding of ordered relations between words, resulting in an overall decrease in recall accuracy. Here we show that the photisms arising from grapheme-color synesthesia do not function like these item-specific cues. The influences of high and low word frequency on the encoding of ordered relations and the accuracy of immediate free recall were compared across a group of 10 synesthetes and 48 nonsynesthetes. The main findings of Experiment 1 showed that the experience of synesthesia had no adverse effect on the encoding of ordered relations (as measured by input-output correspondence); furthermore, it enhanced recall accuracy in a strictly additive fashion across the two word frequency conditions. Experiment 2 corroborated these findings by showing that the synesthetes only outperformed the nonsynesthetes when the materials involved words and letters, not when they involved digits and spatial locations. Altogether, the present findings suggest that synesthesia can boost immediate memory performance without disrupting the encoding of ordered relations.

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Grapheme–color synesthesia can enhance immediate memory without disrupting the encoding of relational cues

et al. 2012

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“…These include synesthetes who explicitly claim to have exploited their synesthesia to aid them in memorizing pi to over 20,000 decimal places , remembering long lists of names for many weeks (Mills et al, 2006), perfectly recalling a list of random words on a surprise test 20 years after initial exposure (Luria, 1968), or perfectly recalling several 50-digit matrices several months after studying them for a few minutes . In the latter case, researchers verified the synesthete's claim that she was exploiting her synesthetic colors on this task by presenting her with matrices of numbers that were colored incongruently with her concurrents, which caused her performance to plummet well below the level of non-synesthetes .…”

Section: Frontiers In Human Neuroscience Wwwfrontiersinorgmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The stimuli used in most group studies are not ones that synesthetes have reported using their concurrents to help remember. Names have been used in one only study, which did find a strong benefit for the (single) synesthetic participant (Mills et al, 2006), and to our knowledge no one has formally tested synesthetic recall of phone numbers. Group studies where adult synesthetes were tasked with remembering large matrices of numbers showed no synesthetic advantage ), but the synesthetes in these studies had not previously claimed to have unusual memories for such matrices.…”

Section: Is There a Synesthetic Style Of Memory?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Group studies where adult synesthetes were tasked with remembering large matrices of numbers showed no synesthetic advantage ), but the synesthetes in these studies had not previously claimed to have unusual memories for such matrices. On the other hand, in every case where synesthetes have been tested on the class of stimuli for which they actually claim to use synesthesia as a memory aid, they have shown advantages (Luria, 1968;Mills et al, 2006;Simner et al, 2009b;. Note that in the two cases where such advantages have been demonstrated and incongruently colored stimuli were employed to interfere with synesthetic experiences, synesthetic memory advantages were mitigated or eliminated entirely .…”

Section: Is There a Synesthetic Style Of Memory?mentioning

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Developing Synaesthesia

2015

Frontiers Research Topics

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“…However, there is no clear evidence for an evolutionary selection preference that could explain why some humans develop synaesthesia and others do not. Nevertheless, it has been shown that grapheme-colour synaesthetes are, for example, better at recalling names [63]. Rothen and Meier found that grapheme-colour synaesthetes performed better in episodic memory tests but not in short-term memory tests, thus indicating that memory performance is not generally improved but rather is task specific [64].…”

Section: Coloured-hearing Synaesthesiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Synaesthesia: cross activations, high interconnectivity, and a parietal hub

Specht¹

2012

Translational Neuroscience

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This review summarizes the most recent studies on synaesthesia, particularly studies on grapheme-colour synaesthesia, time-space synaesthesia, and coloured-hearing synaesthesia. Based on behavioural as well as neuroimaging studies, there is emerging evidence that synaesthesia is not only caused by the cross activation of two sensory areas but that it may require additional binding processes, which are assumed to take place in the parietal lobe. However, divergent results exist with respect to the lateralization of this effect, i.e. whether it is the left or right parietal lobe most responsible. Studies also indicate that attention modulates the synaesthetic experience. Furthermore, it has been shown that synaesthetes demonstrate a higher level of connectivity, thus supporting the view of a genetic pre-disposition of synaesthesia. What is synaesthesia?Synaesthesia describes a rare condition in which a particular sensory stimulus involuntarily evokes an additional, concurrent sensation, which may or may not be in the same sensory modality. The term "synaesthesia" is a combination of the Greek words σύν (syn) = together/ joined, and of the Greek word αἲσθησις (aisthēsis), which means perceptions.In other words, a synaesthete perceives two joint and concurrent perceptions, where only one is caused by a real, external stimulus, while the other is an internally-evoked synaesthetic experience without any direct external cause.The cross-link between the real stimulus and the synaesthetic experience is always the same, for example: seeing the letter A always evokes the synaesthetic experience of seeing the letter in yellow, independent of the real printed colour. In order to understand the processes behind synaesthesia, one has to bear in mind that perception goes beyond the simple processing of sensory information. In general, other cognitive processes involving experience and expectancy, and additionally, conflicting and interfering information, always influence perception. This is the same for synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. However, the important difference between synaesthesia and, for example, a learned association is that a synaesthetic experience cannot be trained and thus the concurrent synaesthetic experience is involuntary and automatically generated. This cross-sensational perception is highly consistent throughout the lifespan, as it remains unchanged from early childhood.It is also important to note that synaesthesia is by no means a psychological, psychiatric,

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Effect of a Synesthete's Photisms on Name Recall

Cited by 50 publications

References 10 publications

Grapheme–color synesthesia can enhance immediate memory without disrupting the encoding of relational cues

Grapheme–color synesthesia can enhance immediate memory without disrupting the encoding of relational cues

Developing Synaesthesia

Synaesthesia: cross activations, high interconnectivity, and a parietal hub

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