Abstract
In this paper we estimate the minimum prevalence of grapheme-color synesthetes with letter-color matches learned from an external stimulus, by analyzing a large sample of English-speaking grapheme-color synesthetes. We find that at least 6% (400/6588 participants) of the total sample learned many of their matches from a widely available colored letter toy. Among those born in the decade after the toy began to be manufactured, the proportion of synesthetes with learned letter-color pairings approaches 15% for some 5-year periods. Among those born 5 years or more before it was manufactured, none have colors learned from the toy. Analysis of the letter-color matching data suggests the only difference between synesthetes with matches to the toy and those without is exposure to the stimulus. These data indicate learning of letter-color pairings from external contingencies can occur in a substantial fraction of synesthetes, and are consistent with the hypothesis that grapheme-color synesthesia is a kind of conditioned mental imagery.
Highlights
When a grapheme-color (GC) synesthete reads this sentence or other black printed text, they report that they ‘see’ the letters as colored
For a given GC synesthete, the particular color associated with each letter appears to be highly consistent over time, and showing consistent lettercolor matching has become a requirement for classifying a subject as a synesthete [1]
Researchers have speculated since the mid 19th century on the origins of the letter color pairings [2, 3, 4, 5] and recent work has focused on the way that letter-color correspondences may be shaped by generally available environmental influences such as color words, alphabetical order, frequency of the letter in the language, and similarities between the shape or sound of different letters [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
Summary
When a grapheme-color (GC) synesthete reads this sentence or other black printed text, they report that they ‘see’ the letters as colored. Researchers have speculated since the mid 19th century on the origins of the letter color pairings [2, 3, 4, 5] and recent work has focused on the way that letter-color correspondences may be shaped by generally available environmental influences such as color words, alphabetical order, frequency of the letter in the language, and similarities between the shape or sound of different letters [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. In a very small number of cases (n = 11), we have shown the correspondences between letters and colors can be directly learned from environmental contingencies such as colored.
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