PSYC 260 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Fusiform Gyrus, Magical Thinking, Schizotypy
Document Summary
A surprisingly large number of people describe unusual experiences that are consistently triggered by certain stimuli (some of) these people are synaesthetes. E. g. people experience alphabets, music, swimming styles, etc. being associated with specific colours. E. g. letter-colour, number-colour, weekday/month-colour, sound-colour, word-taste, number forms. E. g. people associate taste with shapes or shapes with tastes. Synaesthesia = linked sensations (or a crossing of the senses, which is a bad definition as some of synaesthetic experiences are not sensory-related) To count synaesthetes, we need to know who counts as a synaesthete, which is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. For grapheme synaesthetes, a synesthesia battery can be used to test accuracy of their colour association by asking them to participate in multiple trials in which the 26 alphabets presented randomly and subjects must choose the exact colours. Synaesthetes have higher than average colour memory. 5-40% of the population will respond positively to questions about synaesthetic experiences. Wording of the questions will change percentage.
