Second-order mappings in grapheme–color synesthesia

Abstract

Typically, the search for order in grapheme-color synesthesia has been conducted by looking at the frequency of certain letter-color associations. Here, we report stronger associations when second-order similarity mappings are examined-specifically, mappings between the synesthetic colors of letters and letter shape, frequency, and position in the alphabet. The analyses demonstrate that these relations are independent of one other. More strikingly, our analyses show that each of the letter-color mappings is restricted to one dimension of color, with letter shape and ordinality linked to hue, and letter frequency linked to luminance. These results imply that synesthetic associations are acquired as the alphabet is learned, with associations involving letter shape, ordinality, and frequency being made independently and idiosyncratically. Because these mappings of similarity structure between domains (letters and colors) are similar to those found in numerous other cognitive and perceptual domains, they imply that synesthetic associations operate on principles common to many aspects of human cognition.Keywords Human associative learning . Perceptual categorization and identification . Synaesthesia . SynesthesiaAt least 1% of the population reliably associates particular colors with letters and numerals (Simner et al., 2006). Despite an explosion of research on grapheme-color synesthesia over the past two decades, little is known about how these associations are made. Why does Jane see the letter M as a deep purple, while John associates the same letter with forest green? Here we verify that there are several different sources of synesthetic associations, and we investigate both how they interact with each other and what aspects of synesthetic color they influence.To date, synesthesia research has documented a number of regularities in the grapheme-color pairs of individuals. For example, English speakers often associate the letter B with blue or brown, G with green, and so on for the first letters of other common color names (Barnett et al., 2008;Rich, Bradshaw, & Mattingley, 2005;Simner et al., 2005). Similarly, some synesthetes have adopted the colors of letter-shaped fridge magnets used in their childhoods (Witthoft & Winawer, 2006). These are regularities in first-order relations-that is, between nonrelational properties of a letter (such as its shape or name) and dimensions of synesthetic color such as hue and lightness (see also Day, 2005).A parallel line of research has begun to investigate grapheme-color pairings by looking for second-order relations, or "relations between relations." For example, letters with similar shapes, such as E and F, tend to be associated with synesthetic colors that are similar in hue (Brang, Rouw,

Database of synesthetic color associations for Japanese kanji

“…Given this difficulty with establishing first-order relations, recent studies have begun to explore correspondence between the relationships among graphemes, on the one hand, and the relationships among colors, on the other (a second-order relation; Watson et al, 2012). Brang, Rouw, Ramachandran, and Coulson (2011) showed that similarity between synesthetic colors depended on similarity in the shapes of letters.…”

Both “나” and “な” are yellow: Cross-linguistic investigation in search of the determinants of synesthetic color

“…In contrast, most previous studies showing the important role of visual shape in determining synesthetic color used only Latin alphabets, sometimes accompanied by characters of an additional language that shared visual features with Latin (e.g., Cyrillic) (Brang et al, 2011;Rich et al, 2005;Watson et al, 2012;Witthoft and Winawer, 2006). Indeed, the results of our datadriven clustering analysis showed that characters sharing not only sound similarity but also common visual features are clustered together in the color space, while characters of similar sound outnumber characters of similar visual shapes within the clusters (refer to Fig.…”

“…Results so far, however, do not provide a consistent picture. Some researchers found that graphemes of a similar shape tended to induce similar synesthetic colors (Brang et al, 2011;Rich et al, 2005;Watson et al, 2012). Other researchers emphasized the importance of meaning over shape by showing that a similarly shaped character could take on different synesthetic color based on the semantic context in which it appeared (Dixon et al, 2006;Ramachandran and Hubbard, 2001).…”

Sound-grapheme-color Associativity in Komi-permyak Language (Vowels)

“…The researchers mention a lot of reasons of grapheme-color synaesthesia: visual shape of grapheme (Brang et al, 2011;Watson et al, 2012); sound (Asano & Yokosawa, 2011; essence or meaning of the notions, with which the graphon is connected (Rich et al, 2005;Asano & Yokosawa, 2012); grapheme frequency (Beeli et al, 2007); color denomination, i.e. the order of letters in the color name (Cytowic, 1989;Motluk, 1997;Witthoft & Winawer, 2006;Watson et al, 2012); memory, for instance, toys, containing colorful letters, magnets on the refrigerator etc. (Witthoft & Winawer, 2006; a complex of enumerated factors (Asano & Yokosawa, 2011Watson et al, 2012).…”

“…the order of letters in the color name (Cytowic, 1989;Motluk, 1997;Witthoft & Winawer, 2006;Watson et al, 2012); memory, for instance, toys, containing colorful letters, magnets on the refrigerator etc. (Witthoft & Winawer, 2006; a complex of enumerated factors (Asano & Yokosawa, 2011Watson et al, 2012).…”