TRAINING CAN LEAD TO SYNTHETIC EXPERIENCE , DOES LEARNING THE COLOR OF SPECIFIC LETTERS BOOST IQ
A new study has shown
for the first time that people can be trained to "see" letters of the
alphabet as colors in a way that simulates how those with synesthesia
experience their world.
The University of
Sussex research, published today (18 November 2014) in Scientific Reports,
also found that the training might potentially boost IQ.
Synesthesia is a
fascinating though little-understood neurological condition in which some
people (estimated at around 1 in 23) experience an overlap in their senses.
They "see" letters as specific colors, or can "taste"
words, or associate sounds with different colors.
A critical debate
concerns whether the condition is embedded in our genes, or whether it emerges
because of particular environmental influences, such as colored-letter toys in
infancy.
While the two
possibilities are not mutually exclusive, psychologists at the University's
Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science devised a nine-week training program
to see if adults without synesthesia can develop the key hallmarks of the
condition.
They found, in a
sample study of 14, that not only were the participants able to develop strong
letter-color associations to pass all the standard tests for synesthesia, most
also experienced sensations such as letters seeming "colored" or
having individual personas (for instance, "x is boring," "w is
calm").
One of the most
surprising outcomes of the study was that those who underwent the training also
saw their IQ jump by an average of 12 points, compared to a control group that
didn't undergo training.
Dr Daniel Bor, who
co-led the study with Dr Nicolas Rothen, says: "The main implication of
our study is that radically new ways of experiencing the world can be brought
about simply through extensive perceptual training.
"The cognitive
boost, although provisional, may eventually lead to clinical cognitive training
tools to support mental function in vulnerable groups, such as Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity (ADHD) children, or adults starting to suffer from
dementia."
Dr Rothen adds:
"It should be emphasized that we are not claiming to have trained
non-synesthetes to become genuine synesthetes. When we retested our
participants three months after training, they had largely lost the experience
of 'seeing' colors when thinking about the letters. But it does show that
synesthesia is likely to have a major developmental component, starting for
many people in childhood."
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