Exploring the benefit of synaesthetic colours: testing for "pop-out" in individuals with grapheme-colour synaesthesia
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Exploring the benefit of synaesthetic colours : testing for "pop-out" in individuals with grapheme-colour synaesthesia. / Rich, Anina N; Karstoft, Karen-Inge.
In: Cognitive Neuropsychology, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2013, p. 110-25.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the benefit of synaesthetic colours
T2 - testing for "pop-out" in individuals with grapheme-colour synaesthesia
AU - Rich, Anina N
AU - Karstoft, Karen-Inge
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - In grapheme-colour synaesthesia, letters, numbers, and words elicit involuntary colour experiences. Recently, there has been much emphasis on individual differences and possible subcategories of synaesthetes with different underlying mechanisms. In particular, there are claims that for some, synaesthesia occurs prior to attention and awareness of the inducing stimulus. We first characterized our sample using two versions of the "Synaesthetic Congruency Task" to distinguish "projector" and "associator" synaesthetes who may differ in the extent to which their synaesthesia depends on attention and awareness. We then used a novel modification of the "Embedded Figures Task" that included a set-size manipulation to look for evidence of preattentive "pop-out" from synaesthetic colours, at both a group and an individual level. We replicate an advantage for synaesthetes over nonsynaesthetic controls on the Embedded Figures Task in accuracy, but find no support for pop-out of synaesthetic colours. We conclude that grapheme-colour synaesthetes are fundamentally similar in their visual processing to the general population, with the source of their unusual conscious colour experiences occurring late in the cognitive hierarchy.
AB - In grapheme-colour synaesthesia, letters, numbers, and words elicit involuntary colour experiences. Recently, there has been much emphasis on individual differences and possible subcategories of synaesthetes with different underlying mechanisms. In particular, there are claims that for some, synaesthesia occurs prior to attention and awareness of the inducing stimulus. We first characterized our sample using two versions of the "Synaesthetic Congruency Task" to distinguish "projector" and "associator" synaesthetes who may differ in the extent to which their synaesthesia depends on attention and awareness. We then used a novel modification of the "Embedded Figures Task" that included a set-size manipulation to look for evidence of preattentive "pop-out" from synaesthetic colours, at both a group and an individual level. We replicate an advantage for synaesthetes over nonsynaesthetic controls on the Embedded Figures Task in accuracy, but find no support for pop-out of synaesthetic colours. We conclude that grapheme-colour synaesthetes are fundamentally similar in their visual processing to the general population, with the source of their unusual conscious colour experiences occurring late in the cognitive hierarchy.
KW - Adult
KW - Association
KW - Attention
KW - Color Perception
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Pattern Recognition, Visual
KW - Perceptual Disorders
KW - Photic Stimulation
KW - Reaction Time
KW - Synesthesia
U2 - 10.1080/02643294.2013.805686
DO - 10.1080/02643294.2013.805686
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 23768150
VL - 30
SP - 110
EP - 125
JO - Cognitive Neuropsychology
JF - Cognitive Neuropsychology
SN - 0264-3294
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 315764289