a School of Psychology, University of Sussex , Brighton , UK.
Memory. 2019 Oct;27(9):1299-1312. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2019.1646771. Epub 2019 Aug 2.
People with synaesthesia (e.g., experiencing colours for letters and numbers) have been reported to possess enhanced memory relative to the general population. However, there are also inconsistencies in this literature and it is unclear whether this reflects sampling error (exacerbated by low Ns) or more meaningful differences that arise because synaesthesia relates to some aspects of memory more than others. To this end, a multi-level meta-analysis was conducted. Synaesthetes have enhanced long-term (episodic) memory with a medium population effect size ( = 0.61), whereas the effects on working memory (short-term memory) were significantly smaller ( = 0.36) but still exceeded that of controls. Moderation analyses suggested that, aside from the division between long-term vs. working memory, the effects of synaesthesia are pervasive, i.e., they extend to all kinds of stimuli, and extend to all kinds of test formats. This pattern is hard to reconcile with the view that synaesthetic experiences directly support memory ability: for instance, digit span (where synaesthesia could be helpful) showed a small effect whereas episodic memory for abstract images (where synaesthesia is irrelevant) yielded larger effects. Synaesthesia occupies a unique position of being the only known neurodevelopmental condition linked to a pervasive enhancement of long-term memory.
有人报告称，联觉者（例如，体验字母和数字的颜色）相对于一般人群具有更强的记忆力。然而，这方面的文献也存在不一致的情况，不清楚这是否反映了抽样误差（由于 N 值较低而加剧），还是更有意义的差异，因为联觉与记忆的某些方面比其他方面更相关。为此，进行了一项多层次的荟萃分析。联觉者具有增强的长期（情节）记忆，人群效应大小中等（ = 0.61），而工作记忆（短期记忆）的影响明显较小（ = 0.36），但仍超过对照组。调节分析表明，除了长期记忆与工作记忆的划分之外，联觉的影响是普遍存在的，即它们扩展到各种刺激，并且扩展到各种测试格式。这种模式很难与联觉体验直接支持记忆能力的观点相协调：例如，数字跨度（联觉可能有帮助）的效果较小，而抽象图像的情节记忆（联觉不相关）的效果较大。联觉占据了一个独特的位置，是唯一已知的与长期记忆普遍增强有关的神经发育状况。
