Synaesthesia questionnaire
I have been able to contact the UK Synaesthesia Association in order to collect primary research into peoples personal experiences with synaesthesia.
I will be asking a group of people who have synaesthesia the following questions:-What type of synesthesia do you have?
-What senses are effected by this type of synesthesia?
-How do you feel these senses are effected? I.e. Do you struggle with them at all or do they not impact on your life much?
-How often do these synthetic experiences occur?
-Do these experiences still occur when you close your eyes?
-Do your parents have a similar condition?
-Does artificial and natural light effect the experiences at all?
-Do you see more people having synesthetic conditions in the future?
-Do you see this condition as a disability?
I will be asking a group of people who have synaesthesia the following questions:-What type of synesthesia do you have?
-What senses are effected by this type of synesthesia?
-How do you feel these senses are effected? I.e. Do you struggle with them at all or do they not impact on your life much?
-How often do these synthetic experiences occur?
-Do these experiences still occur when you close your eyes?
-Do your parents have a similar condition?
-Does artificial and natural light effect the experiences at all?
-Do you see more people having synesthetic conditions in the future?
-Do you see this condition as a disability?
ANSWERS
Patricia Aidley1. Not much impact, it was just there.
2. I do react to blocks of colour, some (cerulean blue & fuchsia particularly) more than others.
3. Not often/variable; it depends where I am & what I see. Mostly housebound since a fall at end of February 2013 and only one
synaesthesic event (@ village Co-op ; from Chinese plastic picnic set of mugs & dishes) in this last year.
4. No - not with reverse synaesthesia where the colours seen induce sounds in my head.
5. Don't know, they have died.
6. No.
7. Unscientific pointless question. Do you mean - 'more people having synaesthesia diagnosed in the future' ?
8. No, quite the reverse.
2. I do react to blocks of colour, some (cerulean blue & fuchsia particularly) more than others.
3. Not often/variable; it depends where I am & what I see. Mostly housebound since a fall at end of February 2013 and only one
synaesthesic event (@ village Co-op ; from Chinese plastic picnic set of mugs & dishes) in this last year.
4. No - not with reverse synaesthesia where the colours seen induce sounds in my head.
5. Don't know, they have died.
6. No.
7. Unscientific pointless question. Do you mean - 'more people having synaesthesia diagnosed in the future' ?
8. No, quite the reverse.
Felicity Allman
How do you feel the senses associated with grapheme-colour synaesthesia are affected? (i.e. Do you struggle with them at all or do they not impact on your life much?)
It’s only my vision that is affected by my synaesthesia, and you could rightly argue that it’s predominantly my mind’s eye rather than my actual vision. I wouldn’t say that I have any problems with my vision - no more than anybody else - and the colours I see don’t stop me reading or understanding words at all. The biggest impact in the negative is that it sometimes puts me off people - if the letters in their name form a horrible colour or combination, then I subconsciously dislike them before I’ve even had a chance to get to know them; on the plus side, though, it really helps with my spelling. You get quite used to seeing various colour combinations together, especially in common words, and so small mistakes are obviously glaringly obvious to me, as it would be to see something purple among your peas and sweetcorn. It just sticks out like a sore thumb.
How often do these synaesthetic experiences occur?
Constantly. It’s not something that switches off, just as I can’t turn the ability to read on and off. If I see letters, I see colours, and letters are all around us. Sometimes if I’m bored, I can test out my ability and really push myself to see the coloured letters clearly, but I don’t get waves of experience like some other people experience.
How does the colour association work with words? For example, if you saw the word ‘red’, do you associate it with the colour red? And if the word red was written in blue, would you have difficulty reading it?
To answer your last question first, I’ve never tested to see if my performance on the Stroop task would be better or worse than anybody else, although when I did a research paper on Stroop performance with a friend last year, we agreed to use her as the test subject in case my extra layer of colours would skew the results. Most words tend to be predominantly coloured by their first letter - so, for me, ‘G’ is a sort of swampy green, which doesn’t bode well for Gerald or Georgina - but later letters and combinations certainly do affect me, including in the ways I mentioned above. Pup, for instance, is a prettier word than pub (the first is mostly pink, while the latter fades to brown); this leads me onto suggest that you maybe take a look at the concept of ideaesthesia. Some suggest that that’s what grapheme-colour actually is, since the colours that appear are linked to meanings associated with the letters (so p is pink and b is brown). It’s not always the case though. The word red for me is mostly red, but a very dark and bloody shade because d is black.
Do these experiences still occur when you close your eyes?
Yes, if I picture the letters in my head, then they are still coloured. Sometimes it helps me to see them clearly, for instance in experiments in which I'm being tested on the colours.
Do your parents have a similar condition?
I understand that synaesthesia is genetic, but neither of my parents have reported having it. I remember being about 6 years old and drawing out a chart with all the letters and their colours and asking my parents if I'd matched them up right, and they had no idea what I was on about. I understand that it's linked quite closely to dyslexia, and my dad is dyslexic, so it's likely that I got it from him. One researcher told me that they always happen together, but I'm certainly not dyslexic so I believe they fall on more of a spectrum, with him at the dyslexic end and me as the synaesthetic end. He's yet to be tested for synaesthesia, although he was invited to test over a year ago!
Does artificial and natural light affect the experiences at all?
Not that I'm aware of. As the colours appear in my mind, rather than on paper, there's no discernible difference.
Do you see more people having synaesthetic conditions in the future?
I've never really considered it, but I don't see why there would be more cases.
Do you see this condition as a disability?
For me, absolutely not. I understand that some people are very heavily affected by their symptoms, but there is very little negative impact on my life, and next to nothing that I am prevented from doing because of it.
How do you feel the senses associated with grapheme-colour synaesthesia are affected? (i.e. Do you struggle with them at all or do they not impact on your life much?)
It’s only my vision that is affected by my synaesthesia, and you could rightly argue that it’s predominantly my mind’s eye rather than my actual vision. I wouldn’t say that I have any problems with my vision - no more than anybody else - and the colours I see don’t stop me reading or understanding words at all. The biggest impact in the negative is that it sometimes puts me off people - if the letters in their name form a horrible colour or combination, then I subconsciously dislike them before I’ve even had a chance to get to know them; on the plus side, though, it really helps with my spelling. You get quite used to seeing various colour combinations together, especially in common words, and so small mistakes are obviously glaringly obvious to me, as it would be to see something purple among your peas and sweetcorn. It just sticks out like a sore thumb.
How often do these synaesthetic experiences occur?
Constantly. It’s not something that switches off, just as I can’t turn the ability to read on and off. If I see letters, I see colours, and letters are all around us. Sometimes if I’m bored, I can test out my ability and really push myself to see the coloured letters clearly, but I don’t get waves of experience like some other people experience.
How does the colour association work with words? For example, if you saw the word ‘red’, do you associate it with the colour red? And if the word red was written in blue, would you have difficulty reading it?
To answer your last question first, I’ve never tested to see if my performance on the Stroop task would be better or worse than anybody else, although when I did a research paper on Stroop performance with a friend last year, we agreed to use her as the test subject in case my extra layer of colours would skew the results. Most words tend to be predominantly coloured by their first letter - so, for me, ‘G’ is a sort of swampy green, which doesn’t bode well for Gerald or Georgina - but later letters and combinations certainly do affect me, including in the ways I mentioned above. Pup, for instance, is a prettier word than pub (the first is mostly pink, while the latter fades to brown); this leads me onto suggest that you maybe take a look at the concept of ideaesthesia. Some suggest that that’s what grapheme-colour actually is, since the colours that appear are linked to meanings associated with the letters (so p is pink and b is brown). It’s not always the case though. The word red for me is mostly red, but a very dark and bloody shade because d is black.
Do these experiences still occur when you close your eyes?
Yes, if I picture the letters in my head, then they are still coloured. Sometimes it helps me to see them clearly, for instance in experiments in which I'm being tested on the colours.
Do your parents have a similar condition?
I understand that synaesthesia is genetic, but neither of my parents have reported having it. I remember being about 6 years old and drawing out a chart with all the letters and their colours and asking my parents if I'd matched them up right, and they had no idea what I was on about. I understand that it's linked quite closely to dyslexia, and my dad is dyslexic, so it's likely that I got it from him. One researcher told me that they always happen together, but I'm certainly not dyslexic so I believe they fall on more of a spectrum, with him at the dyslexic end and me as the synaesthetic end. He's yet to be tested for synaesthesia, although he was invited to test over a year ago!
Does artificial and natural light affect the experiences at all?
Not that I'm aware of. As the colours appear in my mind, rather than on paper, there's no discernible difference.
Do you see more people having synaesthetic conditions in the future?
I've never really considered it, but I don't see why there would be more cases.
Do you see this condition as a disability?
For me, absolutely not. I understand that some people are very heavily affected by their symptoms, but there is very little negative impact on my life, and next to nothing that I am prevented from doing because of it.
Carrie Firman
http://carriecfirman.com/synesthesia/index.html
http://carriecfirman.com/synesthesia/index.html