Brian Brennan
Dr. Jonathan Hakun
Psych 256 (002)
November 20, 2016
Visual Imagery & Memory: The Esotericism of Synesthesia
Mental imagery can be loosely defined as experiencing a sensory impression of something without the addition of any actual sensory input (Goldstein, 2011, p. 289). This phenomenon is something we experience every day, and it certainly helps us complete day-to-day tasks. Additionally, visual imagery has been discovered to be associated with improvements in memory, which is implicated in such tasks as visualizing interacting images, organization, and associating items with words. With respect to the latter task, Alan Paivio’s (1963) work on memory and visual imagery led him to formulate the conceptual peg hypothesis; an explanation for how we can use visual imagery to associate items with words. According to this hypothesis, memory for pairs of concrete nouns is much better than memory for pairs of abstract nouns. Moreover, these concrete nouns create images that other words can hang onto, which enhances memory for these words (Goldstein, 2011).
A similar and considerably more esoteric phenomenon than visual imagery is known as synesthesia. In this condition, a particular stimulation in a given sensory modality (e.g., touch) or cognitive process (e.g., computing) automatically triggers additional experiences in one or several other unstimulated domains (e.g., vision, emotion; Safran & Sanda, 2015, p. 36). The similarity to visual imagery, here, is the fact that a sensory reaction is produced without the input of a sensation per se that is directly related to the reaction. As a child, my preschool teachers became greatly concerned with my learning ability. I vividly remember overhearing their conversation with my parents when they said, “Bri is clearly a very intelligent student, but he is having a great deal of trouble with his colors and he keeps yelling out colors during our morning music hour.” As a result, my parents sent me to several doctors who tested my vision, and I was subsequently diagnosed with color vision deficiency (color blindness) and synesthesia.
To this day, certain pitches of sounds create very specific complex colors in my field, many of which I cannot correctly identify due to my color vision deficiency. Nevertheless, my condition has helped me immensely in the past, especially when it comes to memory. According to an article posted in Scientific American, “Research has documented that…synesthetic color differences can facilitate performance on tasks in which real color differences facilitate performance for nonsynesthetes” (Scientific American, 2006, p. 2). Personally, my memory for songs is impeccable, and thus I am very musically oriented. For example, the other week, my friend, who is fascinated with my condition, played a song on his guitar and subsequently prompted me to replicate it on the piano. As he way playing, I fixated my vision on a single point on the wall and began to listen and look very carefully at the cascade of colors that presented themselves on the wall. I then used visual imagery to recreate the color pattern and was able to play the song, of which I had never heard before, almost perfectly to the tune. Despite my recreation being very sloppy, I was able to hit every note perfectly, and this was primarily due to my ability to utilize visual imagery as it relates to memory.
Now, synesthesia isn’t as useful as it sounds in many respects because I tend to get extremely overwhelmed and anxious in situations with a lot of noise. For example, I cannot and refuse to go to concerts strictly due to this fact. Additionally, high-pitched, piercing tones create colors that can only be described as frightening (usually a dark red), while low-pitched tones create colors that are more depressing (usually a deep blue). Nevertheless, this is considered a normal occurrence as “persons presenting with synesthesia commonly avoid mentioning their unusual percepts and even tend to close on themselves in psychological distress” (Safran & Sanda, 2015, p. 2). Although my condition catches the attention of almost everyone who finds out I have it, I very much avoid telling others about it due to the revelation being followed up with most individuals yelling out different tones and simultaneously producing rather aversive colors in my visual field. As can be deduced from the aforementioned information, sounds and their respective synesthetic colors produced also yield an emotional response in me that I am unfortunately unable to control. However, this emotional response can also be quite enthralling as many sounds and songs that please me have the capacity to send chills down my spine and bring me to tears of joy. For example, after hearing Sia’s popular song “Chandelier” (piano version), I was hysterically crying and was left with the chills for about an hour. The colors were remarkable and I can remember the repetition of yellow, blue, and a soft green. To that end, I have recently (two weeks ago) delved into learning an instrument, the piano, for the first time so that I can hopefully create music of my own that will evoke similar emotional responses.
References
Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Long-term memory: Encoding and retrieval. In L. Schreiber-Ganster (Ed.), Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (3rd ed., pp. 268-291). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning Inc.
Safran, A. B. & Sanda, N. (2015). Color synesthesia: Insight into perception, emotion, and consciousness. Neurology, 28(1), 36-44. Doi: 10.1097/WCO.00000000000169.
Palmeri, T. J. & Blake, R. B. (2006). What is synesthesia? Scientific American. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-synesthesia/?