Spiller Mary Jane, Jansari Ashok S
School of Psychology, University of East London, UK.
Cognition. 2008 Oct;109(1):143-51. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.08.007. Epub 2008 Oct 1.
Previous studies provide empirical support for the reported colour experience in grapheme-colour synaesthesia by measuring the synaesthetic experience from an externally presented grapheme. The current study explored the synaesthetic experience resulting from a visual mental image of a grapheme. Grapheme-colour synaesthetes (N=6) and matched controls (N=10 per synaesthete) completed a visual mental imagery task that involved visualising a letter and making a size-based decision about it. The background colour that the grapheme was visualised against was manipulated so that it was congruent or incongruent with the synaesthetic colour for the grapheme being visualised. Compared to matched controls, an effect of colour condition was found for four of the six synaesthetes, although importantly the direction of the effect varied between synaesthetes. In addition, a significant effect of group was found, as the synaesthetes were all faster than the matched controls at the imagery task, regardless of background colour. We conclude that there is some support for subjective reports of imagery-induced synaesthesia, but there are important individual differences. These findings are discussed in relation to both the visual imagery and synaesthesia literature.
以往的研究通过测量从外部呈现的字素中获得的联觉体验，为在字素-颜色联觉中所报告的颜色体验提供了实证支持。当前的研究探索了由字素的视觉心理意象所产生的联觉体验。字素-颜色联觉者（N = 6）和匹配的对照组（每个联觉者对应N = 10）完成了一项视觉心理意象任务，该任务包括想象一个字母并对其做出基于大小的判断。对字素进行想象时所依据的背景颜色被加以操控，使其与所想象字素的联觉颜色一致或不一致。与匹配的对照组相比，在六位联觉者中有四位出现了颜色条件效应，不过重要的是，效应的方向在不同联觉者之间有所不同。此外，还发现了显著的组别效应，因为无论背景颜色如何，联觉者在意象任务中的速度都比匹配的对照组更快。我们得出结论，对于意象诱发的联觉的主观报告有一定的支持，但存在重要的个体差异。这些发现将结合视觉意象和联觉文献进行讨论。
