A Colorful World: Synesthesia’s Effect on Creativity Through Firsthand Abstract Representations of Grapheme-Color and Ordinal-Linguistic Personification

Abstract

Synesthesia, a perceptual phenomenon that occurs in about 5% of the population, is characterized by the involuntary expression of a stimulus through association with another stimulus, usually in another sense, such as associating purple with the letter “A” (Yon & Press, 2014). There are several different forms of synesthesia, involving every combination of every sensory modality. Spector and Maurer (2013) found that the most common forms of synesthesia include grapheme-color synesthesia, in which graphemes such as letters and numbers induce a specific color, and time-space synesthesia, in which weekdays, months, etc. occupy a specific space either inside the synesthete’s mind or outside their body. These forms of synesthesia can be categorized in several ways, from their function to their onset of symptoms. Rogowska (2011) refers to one particular category of synesthesia pertaining to associational, artistic synesthesia. Famous painters, writers, and other artists such as painter Vassily Kandinsky and novelist Vladimir Nabokov have reported synesthetic-like experiences, which has led to the study of the relationship between synesthesia and creativity (Mulvenna, 2007). Synesthesia and its effect on creativity holds an interesting topic of study, as understanding the link between synesthesia and creativity may reveal aspects of synesthesia such as its possible causes and whether it can benefit individuals. History