Talk:Grapheme-color synesthesia

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[edit] Just a random thought on associations

Regarding the idea that some synesthetic colors are are based on associative learning, like refridgerator magnets, and noting the slight correlation of synesthetic colors to magnet colors, do you think that the opposite conclusion might be true? That its not that synesthetes are learning from magnets, but that the magents were created originally by a synesthete who was just making magnets the same colors that they perceived the letters? Maybe there is a neurological basis for 'average' color associations, of which both the 'associative learners' and the 'magnet makers' both belong?

Anyway, just a random thought. Phidauex 22:31, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, it's possible, but at this point, we just can't tell. In her study, Anina Rich looked at a bunch of children's books (in Australia), and found that many of them don't contain colored letters and numbers. Similarly, Nabokov notes that the colors of the blocks he played with when he was a child were "wrong" (this is how his synesthesia came to his mother's attention, see Speak Memory). One useful piece of data, which is just starting to appear (but not yet citable) is data similar to the Simner et al. data in German. Other languages would also be needed to really round this out, but it's something people are looking into. Edhubbard 22:38, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

In another line of thinking, what is your "vision" or outline for this page? I was thinking about some of the stuff on the main page, but it would be redundant. On the other hand, much of the stuff on the main page is about grapheme-color synesthesia. Edhubbard 22:38, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, the Synesthesia page is about 33kb right now. Its not too long, but it shouldn't get a whole lot longer. If everything were on that page, it would be too long, so it makes sense to use 'summary style', where we have headings that briefly summarize a topic and then direct readers to the main article on the topic, like we've done with the history of synesthesia research article. My eventual thought is that the synesthesia article will have subheadings describing various forms of synesthesia, and a summary of research and individual reports. In the case of obscure or rare ones, like color -> taste, the summary may be all there is, but for better researched, or more famous types, like grapheme -> color, there would be a sub-article.

In the specific case of this article, my outline idea was something like:

• Lead
• History as it relates to grapheme -> color synesthesia
• Subjective or notable reports
• Grapheme -> color specific research (like the computer interface research, and your work)

It won't be a long article, and eventually, a summary of it will appear in the main synesthesia article along with a link to the subarticle. Of course, any of this could change at any time, this is just my general thought. Phidauex 00:21, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

I like that idea. When I added yet another link in the lead, concerning yet another form of synesthesia (personifications), I was starting to feel like that was also in danger of getting unwieldy. Perhaps a little more, and we'll have to make a list so that people can see the different forms. Edhubbard 01:04, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Student

~Hi I am a 12 year old girl who has ADD and Sthiysisia. I see numbers and letters in Color and shapes have a personality to me. In third grade i figured out that was diffrent. I am terrible at math and was called on to do a simple division problem on the board. I picked up the green marker because that is the color number 3, but my teacher told me to use black, like everyone else. "But three is green" i said. Everyone in class started laughing at me and I looked at them for support because I thought they were playing a trick on me! My teacher was so fed up that she sent me to the office to speak with the headmaster. His name was Mr. Alman. I was about to tell him that his name was like a barn full of hay and it smellt like it too. I decided not to, considering he was pretty annoyed. I knew no one would understand me so i told him that it was a joke and a pretty stupid one at that. He dissmised me and the rest of the day i was wondering why does'nt everyone see like this? I told my parents and thankfuly they belived me and took me to a nurologist.~

Yeah... no. This isn't a story-telling circle. Go to a message board or something and quit wasting talk page space. Oh, and by the way, three is more of a neon-lime green, not that dark green that marker companies use. And sign your posts, please. Thank you. Dagron12345 01:27, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

You're right, of course, but that was a little harsh response to a 12-year-old who is finally making sense of a challenging difference between her and others. --Rpresser 15:22, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] non-latin colour synaesthesia?

Aside from numbers, nothing seems to have been mentioned abut whether, for instance, Arabs, Japanese, Russians, Greeks, Chinese, Thais, Koreans and so experience this phenomenon.

While I would assume they do, I don't know it for a fact.

Anyone? 75.28.41.156 14:09, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

As of yet, there is no research on this topic with native speakers, although I know of several ongoing projects, in particular a project headed by Julia Simner at the University of Edinburgh to study synesthesia in Chinese readers. In addition, Patricia Lynn Duffy discusses her experiences of acquiring synesthesia for Chinese pictograms while working there for the United Nations, in her book Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens. Finally, there are a couple of studies by Carol Mills which have discussed a synesthete who first learned to read Cyrillic, but these do not focus on the linguistic differences, and mostly use the Roman alphabet in their experiments. Although there are a few studies, there is little that is really systematic. With a couple of more studies, it might be worth writing a whole section on this. Edhubbard 02:00, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I've taught myself both the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets at around the age of 16 and my colors tended to "transfer" to the new language. If the symbol was the same, however, for different sounds (Cyrillic "B" is pronounced "v"), it kept its color. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.76.166.30 (talk) 23:24, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I taught myself Greek when I was around 10 and I used to read the dictionary (my dictionary had 4 different alphabets under the word "alphabet") and phi turned like a yellow-orange mix cause of the P-H combo. Beta stayed orange, and alpha stayed blue. Dagron12345 01:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)