Synaesthetic colours do not camouflage form in visual search.

Full Abstract

One of the major issues in synaesthesia research is to identify the level of processing involved in the formation of the subjective colours experienced by synaesthetes:
are they perceptual phenomena or are they due to memory and association learning? To address this question, we tested whether the colours reported by a group of grapheme-colour synaesthetes (previously studied in an functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment) influenced them in a visual search task. As well as using a condition where synaesthetic colours should have aided visual search, we introduced a condition where the colours experienced by synaesthetes would be expected to make them worse than controls. We found no evidence for differences between synaesthetes and normal controls, either when colours should have helped them or where they should have hindered. We conclude that the colours reported by our population of synaesthetes are not equivalent to perceptual signals, but arise at a cognitive level where they are unable to affect visual search.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Gheri, C (C); Chopping, S (S); Morgan, M J (MJ);

Affiliation: Applied Vision Research Centre, The City University, Northampton Square, London ECV1 0HB, UK.

Grants: (Agency:United Kingdom Wellcome Trust)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society (Proc Biol Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Apr; vol 275 (issue 1636) : pp 841-6

Dates: Created 2008/02/13; Completed 2008/05/19;

PMID: 18182374, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Association
Color
Color Perception
Female
Humans

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.