Ideesthesia

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An example of grapheme-color associations for which the term "ideasthesia" is more appropriate than "synaesthesia"

Ideesthesia (also ideasthesia , English ideasthesia , also ideaesthesia ) describes a perception phenomenon at the point of contact between conceptual and sensory mental processes. Here, an activated concept, the so-called. Calls trigger (English inducer ) a sensory sensation produced, the so-called. Accompanying sensation (English concurrent ). For example, a person with this ability perceives a color (such as red) when he recognizes a letter (such as an A).

term

The term "Ideasthesia" comes from the English-language dominated international synaesthesia research and describes a sub-area of ​​all synaesthetic phenomena. Analogous to synesthesia , it is Germanized as ideesthesia or ideesthesia . It comes from the Greek "idea" + "aisthesis" and means to perceive concepts or to feel ideas . This means that an abstract concept can be sensually experienced through the accompanying sensation.

The main reason for the introduction of the new term “ideesthesia” was the accumulation of empirical findings which showed that the term “synesthesia” in many cases suggests a misleading explanation for the phenomena it describes: often as “connection of sensory channels” or “mixing of the Meaning "translated," synesthesia "implies that the trigger and the accompanying sensation are both of sensory quality and combine equally without the cognitive processing level being relevant. In contrast, recent research shows that most “synaesthetic” perceptions are linked to semantic representations, i.e. the meaning of the triggering concept. In contrast, the sensory properties of a trigger (e.g. the pronunciation of a letter) play a subordinate role. By studying ideesthesia, science would make an important contribution to solving questions about the mystery of human consciousness, which, according to ideesthesia, is based on the activation of concepts.

The following table shows the different theoretical assumptions that "ideesthesia" and "synesthesia" make implicitly about the nature of "inducer" and "concurrent":

Inducer Concurrent
Synesthesia sensory sensory
Ideesthesia semantically sensory
Which of the two forms is called "Buba" and which "Kiki"? Most people immediately agree on that. This is an example of ideesthesia as the conceptualization of the stimulus is central.

Ideesthesia in everyday life

Recently, the bouba kiki phenomenon is believed to be a case of ideesthesia. Most people agree that the star-shaped object on the left is called kiki and the round object on the right is called bouba. It was believed that these associations stem from direct connections between the visual and auditory cortex. According to this hypothesis, for example, the representation of jagged outlines of the star-shaped object is associated with the sound of the word "Kiki". Gomez et al., However, have shown that kiki / bouba associations are much richer, as each word and image is semantically associated with a range of terms such as white or black, female versus male, cold versus hot, and others. Both Kiki and the star shape represent the characteristics of smart, small, thin and nervous. This suggests that a rich semantic network is hidden behind the Kiki-Bouba effect. In other words, our sensory experience is largely determined by the meaning we attach to stimuli. The description of food is another area in which ideesthetic associations between taste and other sensory perceptions of a form, shape, can play an important role.

Examples

An example of time-space-synesthesia / ideesthesia (click on the picture to view an enlarged version)

A common form of ideesthesia is the combination of graphemes and colors, as in the example above. It is often referred to as grapheme-color synesthesia: For people with this form of ideesthesia, each letter of the alphabet evokes its own vivid color sensation. Studies show that it is not the stimulus configuration, i.e. the line shape of the letter, that is decisive, but that the perceived color depends on the context, i.e. on the importance attached to this line configuration. An ambiguous stimulus “ 5 ” can either be interpreted as an “S” or “5”, depending on the context in which it appears. As part of a series of numbers, it will be interpreted as "5" and will have the color accompanying this number. As part of a word, however, it will be interpreted as "S" and calls up the appropriate color.

The assumption that letter-color connections are an ideesthetic phenomenon is also supported by the experimental finding that letter-color connections occur very quickly, i.e. H. can arise within minutes. In one study, letter-color idea aesthetes were shown Glagolithic letters they had never seen before. There is a one-to-one assignment between Latin and Glagolitic letters. The syn- / ideesthetic study participants learned in written exercises to use the Glagolithic letters instead of the Latin - i.e. H. they acquired the importance of the new graphemes. The Glagolithic letters then "inherited" the colors of the corresponding Latin letters as soon as the ideesthetes became familiar with their meaning.

In the case of word-taste synaesthesia, too, everything indicates that the phenomenon is based on ideesthetic instead of synaesthetic processes. In the case of word-taste synesthesia, verbalization or hearing a word leads to accompanying taste sensations. However, it could be shown that it is not the word itself that triggers the sensation of taste, but that it is in turn the meaning of the verbalized concept that evokes the ideesthetic perception.

Another example of ideesthesia is the so-called "swimming style synesthesia". Here the four basic swimming styles (crawl, back, chest and dolphin) are each associated with their own color. Swimming style synaesthetes or idesthetes experience this color sensation not only when swimming themselves, but also when they only think about swimming or see corresponding pictures. Neither the motor exercise nor the proprioceptive feedback of swimming are necessary to bring about this ideesthesia; it is sufficient to activate the concept of the swimming style.

In pitch-color synesthesia, the same tone is associated with different colors depending on how it was named, even though the two terms refer to the same tone; "Cis" is z. B. have a reddish color and "des" a yellowish one.

One-shot synesthesia : There are synesthetic experiences that can only occur once in a lifetime and are known as one-shot synesthesia. The study of such cases has shown that these unique experiences typically occur when a synesthete goes through intense mental and emotional processes, such as planning important decisions for the future or thinking about their life. From this it was concluded that this is also a form of ideesthesia.

The concept of ideesthesia contributes to the understanding of the development of synesthesia in children. Synesthetic children can suddenly assign specific sensory experiences to abstract concepts with which they would otherwise have difficulties. Synesthesia can therefore be used as a cognitive tool to deal with the abstractness of the learning materials introduced by the educational system - also known as the "semantic vacuum hypothesis". This hypothesis explains why the most common triggers for synesthesia are graphemes and time units - both refer to the first truly abstract terms a child needs to master.

Consequences for the theory about art

The model of ideesthesia has often been discussed in relation to art, and has also been used to formulate a psychological theory about art. According to this theory, we consider something to be a work of art if the experiences it produces coincide exactly with the semantics of the same. So a work of art makes us think and touches us. In addition, both must be perfectly balanced so that the most salient stimulus evokes the strongest sensation (fear, joy, ...) and most impressive knowledge (memory, memory, ...) - in other words, the idea - idea is with the sensation - aisthesis in balance.

The theory of ideesthesia about art can be used for psychological studies of aesthetics. It can also help resolve classification disputes about art, as the main reason is that art experience can only be individual, depending on each person's unique knowledge, experience, and past. There can be no general classification of art that is satisfactorily applicable to all individuals.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ D. Nikolić, UM Jürgens: Symphony in Red . In: Brain & Mind , 6/2011, pp. 58–63.
  2. ↑ D. Nikolić: Is synaesthesia actually ideaestesia? An inquiry into the nature of the phenomenon . Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Synaesthesia, Science & Art, Granada, Spain, April 26-29, 2009.
  3. ↑ a b MJ Dixon, D. Smilek, PL Duffy, PM Zanna, PM Merikle: The Role of Meaning in Grapheme-Color Synaesthesia . In: Cortex , 42, 2006, pp. 243-252.
  4. ↑ a b A. Mroczko, T. Metzinger, W. Singer, D. Nikolić: Immediate transfer of synesthesia to a novel inducer . Journal of Vision , 9, 2009, pp. 2521-2528.
  5. ↑ a b J. Simner, J. Ward: The taste of words on the tip of the tongue . In: Nature , 444, 2006, p. 438.
  6. ↑ a b c D. Nikolić, UM Jürgens, N. Rothen, B. Meier, A. Mroczko: Swimming-style synesthesia . In: Cortex , 47 (7), 2011, pp. 874-879.
  7. ^ E. Gómez Milán, O. Iborra, MJ de Córdoba, V. Juárez-Ramos, MA Rodríguez Artacho, JL Rubio: The Kiki-Bouba effect: A case of personification and ideaesthesia . In: The Journal of Consciousness Studies. (in press)
  8. ↑ Gómez Milán, E., Iborra, O., de Córdoba, MJ, Juárez-Ramos V., Rodríguez Artacho, MA, Rubio, JL: (2013) The Kiki-Bouba effect: A case of personification and ideaesthesia. Ed .: The Journal of Consciousness Studies. 20 (1-2): pp. 84-102.
  9. ↑ Shukla, A .: (2016). The Kiki-Bouba paradigm: Where senses meet and greet. Ed .: Indian Journal of Mental Health. S. 3 (3), 240-252 .
  10. ↑ Köhler, W (1929) .: Gestalt Psychology. Ed .: New York: Liveright.
  11. ↑ Ramachandran, VS & Hubbard, EM (2001): Synaesthesia: A window into perception, thought and language. Ed .: Journal of Consciousness Studies. S. 8 (12): 3-34 .
  12. ↑ Ramachandran, VS & Hubbard, EM (2001): Synaesthesia: A window into perception, thought and language. Ed .: Journal of Consciousness Studies. S. 8 (12): 3-34 .
  13. ↑ Gómez Milán, E., Iborra, O., de Córdoba, MJ, Juárez-Ramos V., Rodríguez Artacho, MA, Rubio, JL (2013): The Kiki-Bouba effect: A case of personification and ideaesthesia. Ed .: The Journal of Consciousness Studies. S. 20 (1-2): pp. 84-102 .
  14. ↑ Milán, Emilio Gómez, Oscar Iborra Martínez, and María José de Córdoba Serrano .: El Universo Kiki-Bouba: Ideaestesia, Empatía y Neuromárketing. Ed .: Fundación Internacional artecittà, 2014.
  15. ^ Spence, Charles, and Ophelia Deroy .: On the shapes of flavors: A review of four hypotheses. Theoria et Historia Scientiarum 10 (2014): . S. 207-238 .
  16. ↑ Itoh, K., Sakata, H., Kwee, IL, & Nakada, T. (2017) .: Musical pitch classes have rainbow hues in pitch class-color synesthesia. Ed .: Scientific reports ,. S. 7 (1), 17781 .
  17. ↑ Kirschner, A., & Nikolić, D. (2017) .: One-shot synesthesia. Ed .: Translational Neuroscience ,. S. 8 (1), 167-175 .
  18. ↑ Mroczko-Wąsowicz, A., Nikolić D. (2014): Semantic mechanisms may be responsible for developing synesthesia. Ed .: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8: 509. doi : 10.3389 / fnhum.2014.00509 .
  19. ^ Rapp, B., & Caramazza, A. (1997) .: From graphemes to abstract letter shapes: levels of representation in written spelling. Ed .: Journal of experimental psychology: human perception and performance ,. S. 23 (4), 1130 .
  20. ↑ Gsöllpointner, Katharina .: "THE ART OF THE SENSES – THE SENSES OF THE ART." Exploring Cybernetics: . Cybernetics in interdisciplinary discourse (2015) :, p. 137-165 .
  21. ^ Albertazzi, Liliana, et al: "The hue of angles — was Kandinsky right ?." .Art & Perception 3.1 (2015): . S. 81-92 .
  22. ↑ Mărginaş, Raluca .: "The Spurious Case of Synesthesia in the Popular Arts." Ekphrasis 1 (2012): . S. 144-151 .
  23. ^ Johnson, A. (2017). Hendrick ter Brugghen's Musicians and the Engagement of the Viewer .: Hendrick ter Brugghen's Musicians and the Engagement of the Viewer. Editor: Temple University.
  24. ↑ a b Nikolić D. (2016) In: Gsöllpointner, Katharina, et al. (eds.). 2016 .: Ideasthesia and art. In: Digital Synesthesia. A Model for the Aesthetics of Digital Art. (Ed.): Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter ( http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/print/11666 ) .