How do people with synesthesia experience partial matches or changes?
June 22, 2020 5:46 PM
While I realize that there are lots of different types of synesthesia, a common example is seeing numbers as being specific colors. But, say, if "6" is "blue" and "9" is "red," how would someone with synesthesia experience a 6 being slowly turned upside down into a 9?
Or, say, if "0" is green, what happens if someone starts slowly drawing a vertical line on the side of the 0, gradually turning it into a 9? Do the colors snap, or blend, or flutter between the two, or does the first color stick? What about messy handwriting where it's hard to tell if a number is a "1" or a "7"?
(Feel free to substitute smells for colors, words for numbers, or whatever, as those were just examples of what I was getting at with "partial matches or changes")
Or, say, if "0" is green, what happens if someone starts slowly drawing a vertical line on the side of the 0, gradually turning it into a 9? Do the colors snap, or blend, or flutter between the two, or does the first color stick? What about messy handwriting where it's hard to tell if a number is a "1" or a "7"?
(Feel free to substitute smells for colors, words for numbers, or whatever, as those were just examples of what I was getting at with "partial matches or changes")
As someone with very intermittent (and really, quite boring) sound-to-color synesthesia (chromesthesia), only "complete matches" trigger any cross-pathway experiences for me.
As an example, musical instruments sometimes show as colored swatches in my vision. If I hear something that's not an instrument - or instrument that's significantly off-key - nothing happens. I don't get any of the perfect pitch benefits that some people do with chromesthesia. In particular, slightly off-key instruments trigger the same response. I experience clarinets and oboes most prominently as blue-ish. Any reasonable clarinet/oboe player triggers the blue sensation, as evidenced by me just now watching some high schoolers playing clarinet on YouTube.
If there was some sort of "half-clarinet/half-trumpet" instrument I could listen to, I would happily report my results. :)
posted by sockmypuppet at 6:27 PM on June 22, 2020
As an example, musical instruments sometimes show as colored swatches in my vision. If I hear something that's not an instrument - or instrument that's significantly off-key - nothing happens. I don't get any of the perfect pitch benefits that some people do with chromesthesia. In particular, slightly off-key instruments trigger the same response. I experience clarinets and oboes most prominently as blue-ish. Any reasonable clarinet/oboe player triggers the blue sensation, as evidenced by me just now watching some high schoolers playing clarinet on YouTube.
If there was some sort of "half-clarinet/half-trumpet" instrument I could listen to, I would happily report my results. :)
posted by sockmypuppet at 6:27 PM on June 22, 2020
I just read this question to my 17 year old with synesthesia. The short version of her answer is that the color is based on whatever number she's currently seeing it as. I drew a 0 and then started adding a vertical line while she watched, and she said that at the point where it began to look more like a 9, the color switched to the color of 9. It was pretty much an instant change.
I drew a row of numbers that looked like they could be either 1's or 7's. She initially felt they looked like 1's and she said they were light yellow. For her, 1 is generally white but can be light yellow if it looks more like a 7 (which is brighter yellow.) If it's just a straight line it will be white but if it has the little strokes at the top or bottom it's more likely to be light yellow. She said she could think of my numbers as either 1's or 7's and when she thought of them as 7's they were brighter yellow, like a 7, but when she thought of them as 1's they were light yellow. Again, it sounded like the color switch happened instantly.
When I drew a 6 and then turned it different directions she said that faded more slowly from 6 to 9 colors and back again as her perception of it as one or the other changed, but for her 6 and 9 have pretty similar colors.
posted by Redstart at 6:36 PM on June 22, 2020
I drew a row of numbers that looked like they could be either 1's or 7's. She initially felt they looked like 1's and she said they were light yellow. For her, 1 is generally white but can be light yellow if it looks more like a 7 (which is brighter yellow.) If it's just a straight line it will be white but if it has the little strokes at the top or bottom it's more likely to be light yellow. She said she could think of my numbers as either 1's or 7's and when she thought of them as 7's they were brighter yellow, like a 7, but when she thought of them as 1's they were light yellow. Again, it sounded like the color switch happened instantly.
When I drew a 6 and then turned it different directions she said that faded more slowly from 6 to 9 colors and back again as her perception of it as one or the other changed, but for her 6 and 9 have pretty similar colors.
posted by Redstart at 6:36 PM on June 22, 2020
My grapheme-colour synaesthesia seems to be shape-based.
I already have confusing overlaps (2 and 5; 3 and 6; 7 and Y; 0 and o). Also some shapes have "stronger"/"weaker" colours than others, weaker shapes will get blended over, stronger shapes do the blending. This is mostly for 0/o but also sometimes 7/Y and 9.
So to answer your scenarios:
- green 6 being turned into a red 9 would go through other colours on its way there depending on what way you rotate it (purple if counter-clockwise, muddy brownish something clockwise)
- gray/neutral 0 being extended would be... I'm not sure, yellow and green? until it registers as 9 and goes red (this is hard because 0 is a weak shape and 9 is a weak shape and Y is a weak shape so it's like "what colour is this mostly clear thing")
- messy handwriting (including my own) is the bane of my existence but I can usually guess my way to comprehension. it's more of a problem when it's something precise like algebra - I drop variables all over the place.
Fun side effect: Remembering spelling and phone numbers and sequences is sometimes like playing colour-coded hangman. I memorized the general pattern of colour, then it's a question of trying shapes so that the blend is right.
posted by buteo at 6:41 PM on June 22, 2020
I already have confusing overlaps (2 and 5; 3 and 6; 7 and Y; 0 and o). Also some shapes have "stronger"/"weaker" colours than others, weaker shapes will get blended over, stronger shapes do the blending. This is mostly for 0/o but also sometimes 7/Y and 9.
So to answer your scenarios:
- green 6 being turned into a red 9 would go through other colours on its way there depending on what way you rotate it (purple if counter-clockwise, muddy brownish something clockwise)
- gray/neutral 0 being extended would be... I'm not sure, yellow and green? until it registers as 9 and goes red (this is hard because 0 is a weak shape and 9 is a weak shape and Y is a weak shape so it's like "what colour is this mostly clear thing")
- messy handwriting (including my own) is the bane of my existence but I can usually guess my way to comprehension. it's more of a problem when it's something precise like algebra - I drop variables all over the place.
Fun side effect: Remembering spelling and phone numbers and sequences is sometimes like playing colour-coded hangman. I memorized the general pattern of colour, then it's a question of trying shapes so that the blend is right.
posted by buteo at 6:41 PM on June 22, 2020
The "flipping" sensation reminds me of the dress, and how it felt to perceive it very clearly as white and gold, and then properly as blue and black.
My daughter said, "Yes! Exactly!" to this.
She says for her æ is both green (the color of a) and orange (the color of e) at the same time. It's not like part of it is green and part is orange, or like the colors are blended together. It's just both.
posted by Redstart at 7:10 PM on June 22, 2020
My daughter said, "Yes! Exactly!" to this.
She says for her æ is both green (the color of a) and orange (the color of e) at the same time. It's not like part of it is green and part is orange, or like the colors are blended together. It's just both.
posted by Redstart at 7:10 PM on June 22, 2020
Awesome! I've been wondering this for over a decade but never had the presence of mind to ask. The example of the Dress (or, since that never worked for me, the Spinning Ballerina) makes so much sense.
posted by Bugbread at 7:18 PM on June 22, 2020
posted by Bugbread at 7:18 PM on June 22, 2020
I have number/letter -> color synesthesia. When picturing a 6 turning into a 9, it stays the color of 6 (blue) the whole time, although at the end when I'm picturing a blue 9, there is a little bit of dissonance/effort and it's hard to explain but I'm sort of also picturing a 9 with its usual color (brown).
If I was looking at actual physical handwriting, I would see all the letters as whatever color the ink was; the synesthesia-imparted color only happens with numbers/letters in the abstract or in the imagination, if that makes sense.
Also, you didn't ask about this, but for me words and names usually have the color of their first letter, which overpowers the colors of their other letters.
posted by dogwalker3 at 10:37 PM on June 22, 2020
If I was looking at actual physical handwriting, I would see all the letters as whatever color the ink was; the synesthesia-imparted color only happens with numbers/letters in the abstract or in the imagination, if that makes sense.
Also, you didn't ask about this, but for me words and names usually have the color of their first letter, which overpowers the colors of their other letters.
posted by dogwalker3 at 10:37 PM on June 22, 2020
I have grapheme-color synesthesia. For me, as others have said, the color is tied to what number I'm thinking of in my brain. So similar to how if you saw a sideways 6/9 and your brain was flipping back and forth between seeing it as a 6 or as a 9, the same thing happens for me, except I'm also flipping back and forth between purple and orange at the same time. (For me the color is associated with the concept of each number more strongly than the actual grapheme -- it may be different for other people!)
posted by mekily at 5:59 AM on June 23, 2020
posted by mekily at 5:59 AM on June 23, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
I do experience some blending with a grapheme like "æ" which to me is both red ("a") and dark brown ("e") kind of watercolored together.
Also I love this question!
posted by rabbitbookworm at 6:23 PM on June 22, 2020