Preverbal Infants' Sensitivity to Synaesthetic Cross-Modality Correspondences.

Psychology

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https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797609354734
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Keywords

synaesthesia, infant perception, cross-modal perception, preferential looking, AUDITORY PITCH, SOUND, SIZE, PERCEPTION, TONES

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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

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Preverbal Infants' Sensitivity to Synaesthetic Cross-Modality Correspondences. / Walker, Peter ; Bremner, J. Gavin ; Mason, Ursula et al.
In: Psychological Science, Vol. 21, No. 1, 01.2010, p. 21-25.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Bibtex

@article{42b25c43140d484cadde09f61ce3f446,

title = "Preverbal Infants' Sensitivity to Synaesthetic Cross-Modality Correspondences.",

abstract = "Stimulation of one sensory modality can induce perceptual experiences in another modality that reflect synaesthetic correspondences among different dimensions of sensory experience. In visual-hearing synaesthesia, for example, higher pitched sounds induce visual images that are brighter, smaller, higher in space, and sharper than those induced by lower pitched sounds. Claims that neonatal perception is synaesthetic imply that such correspondences are an unlearned aspect of perception. To date, the youngest children in whom such correspondences have been confirmed with any certainty were 2- to 3-year-olds. We examined preferential looking to assess 3- to 4-month-old preverbal infants' sensitivity to the correspondences linking auditory pitch to visuospatial height and visual sharpness. The infants looked longer at a changing visual display when this was accompanied by a sound whose changing pitch was congruent, rather than incongruent, with these correspondences. This is the strongest indication to date that synaesthetic cross-modality correspondences are an unlearned aspect of perception.",

keywords = "synaesthesia, infant perception, cross-modal perception, preferential looking, AUDITORY PITCH, SOUND, SIZE, PERCEPTION, TONES",

author = "Peter Walker and Bremner, {J. Gavin} and Ursula Mason and Joanne Spring and Karen Mattock and Alan Slater and Johnson, {Scott P}",

year = "2010",

month = jan,

doi = "10.1177/0956797609354734",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

pages = "21--25",

journal = "Psychological Science",

issn = "0956-7976",

publisher = "SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC",

number = "1",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Preverbal Infants' Sensitivity to Synaesthetic Cross-Modality Correspondences.

AU - Walker, Peter

AU - Bremner, J. Gavin

AU - Mason, Ursula

AU - Spring, Joanne

AU - Mattock, Karen

AU - Slater, Alan

AU - Johnson, Scott P

PY - 2010/1

Y1 - 2010/1

N2 - Stimulation of one sensory modality can induce perceptual experiences in another modality that reflect synaesthetic correspondences among different dimensions of sensory experience. In visual-hearing synaesthesia, for example, higher pitched sounds induce visual images that are brighter, smaller, higher in space, and sharper than those induced by lower pitched sounds. Claims that neonatal perception is synaesthetic imply that such correspondences are an unlearned aspect of perception. To date, the youngest children in whom such correspondences have been confirmed with any certainty were 2- to 3-year-olds. We examined preferential looking to assess 3- to 4-month-old preverbal infants' sensitivity to the correspondences linking auditory pitch to visuospatial height and visual sharpness. The infants looked longer at a changing visual display when this was accompanied by a sound whose changing pitch was congruent, rather than incongruent, with these correspondences. This is the strongest indication to date that synaesthetic cross-modality correspondences are an unlearned aspect of perception.

AB - Stimulation of one sensory modality can induce perceptual experiences in another modality that reflect synaesthetic correspondences among different dimensions of sensory experience. In visual-hearing synaesthesia, for example, higher pitched sounds induce visual images that are brighter, smaller, higher in space, and sharper than those induced by lower pitched sounds. Claims that neonatal perception is synaesthetic imply that such correspondences are an unlearned aspect of perception. To date, the youngest children in whom such correspondences have been confirmed with any certainty were 2- to 3-year-olds. We examined preferential looking to assess 3- to 4-month-old preverbal infants' sensitivity to the correspondences linking auditory pitch to visuospatial height and visual sharpness. The infants looked longer at a changing visual display when this was accompanied by a sound whose changing pitch was congruent, rather than incongruent, with these correspondences. This is the strongest indication to date that synaesthetic cross-modality correspondences are an unlearned aspect of perception.

KW - synaesthesia

KW - infant perception

KW - cross-modal perception

KW - preferential looking

KW - AUDITORY PITCH

KW - SOUND

KW - SIZE

KW - PERCEPTION

KW - TONES

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77951259598&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0956797609354734

DO - 10.1177/0956797609354734

M3 - Journal article

VL - 21

SP - 21

EP - 25

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

SN - 0956-7976

IS - 1

ER -

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