Synaesthesia Essay

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Webster dictionary defines synaesthesia as “a subjective sensation or image of a sense other than the one being stimulated” (Wyld,1963). Synaesthesia is a condition that causes someone to have associations of usually color with certain everyday things, such as numbers or letters. There are several different types of synaesthesia that will be discussed in this paper digit-color synaesthesia, odor-color synaesthesia, and person- and music-color synaesthesia. A common effect that is discussed when talking about synaesthesia is the McCollough effect. This effect is a wonder of humans and their visual perception where colorless gratings appear to have a color. Digit-color synaesthesia is when an individual has an unintentional color associated with every number. This is not intentionally learned or taught. No case of synaesthesia is …show more content…

In a study done by V. S. Ramachandran and Zeve Marcus, seven synaesthetes and thirteen non-synaesthetes were tested on their personal effects of the McCollough effect (2017). Collectively, this study showed that the observations made could prove the possibility that the McCollough effect can take advantage of the color connections that synesthetes already possess to strengthen the effects. These four different studies of different types of synaesthesia and the McCollough effect have proven that synaesthetes are likely to have an easier time memorizing and recalling information because of their associations with numbers, odors, people, and music. It allows them to be consistent with the information they provide, as well as, accurate. Synaesthesia is not an intentional phenomenon, nor can it be easily learned. It is a circumstance that is unique to every individual that has it and no two synesthetes are the same or have the same

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