Ward Jamie, Thompson-Lake Daisy, Ely Roxanne, Kaminski Flora
Department of Psychology, University College London, UK.
Br J Psychol. 2008 Feb;99(Pt 1):127-41. doi: 10.1348/000712607X204164.
It has been suggested that individuals with synaesthesia may show heightened creativity as a result of being able to form meaningful associations between disparate stimuli (e.g. colour, sound). In this study, a large sample (N=82) of people with various kinds of synaesthesia were given two psychometric tests of creativity (Remote Associates Test, Alternate Uses Test) and were also asked about the amount of time engaged in creative arts (visual art, music). There was a significant tendency for synaesthetes to spend more time engaged in creative arts and this was, at least in part, dependent upon the type of synaesthesia experienced. For example, synaesthetes experiencing vision from music were far more likely to play an instrument than their other synaesthetic counterparts. There was no relationship between this tendency and the psychometric measures of creativity, but synaesthetes did outperform controls on one of the two psychometric measures (Remote Associates). We conclude that the tendency for synaesthetes to be more engaged in art is likely to have a different mechanism to psychometric measures of creativity, and that there is no direct link between them. Although synaesthetes may well perform better on some measures of creativity, we suggest that synaesthetes have better bottom-up access to certain associations, but are not necessarily better able to use them flexibly (in divergent thinking).
有人认为，通感者可能由于能够在不同刺激（如颜色、声音）之间形成有意义的联想而展现出更高的创造力。在本研究中，对一大群（N = 82）患有各种通感症的人进行了两项创造力心理测量测试（远距离联想测试、变通用途测试），并询问了他们从事创意艺术（视觉艺术、音乐）的时间。通感者有显著倾向花费更多时间从事创意艺术，并且这至少部分取决于所经历的通感类型。例如，从音乐中体验到视觉的通感者比其他通感者更有可能演奏乐器。这种倾向与创造力的心理测量指标之间没有关系，但在两项心理测量指标之一（远距离联想）上，通感者的表现确实优于对照组。我们得出结论，通感者更热衷于艺术的倾向可能与创造力的心理测量指标有着不同的机制，且二者之间没有直接联系。尽管通感者在某些创造力指标上可能表现得更好，但我们认为通感者在自下而上获取某些联想方面表现更佳，但不一定更善于灵活运用这些联想（在发散性思维中）。
