Personality Effects in Synaesthesia
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Date
2014Item status
Restricted AccessAuthor
Hossain, Shyla R.
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Abstract
Synaesthesia is condition is which sensory input is perceived through two or more modalities.
Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a variety of the condition in which reading or hearing letters or
numbers simultaneously triggers the perception of colours. The qualities of these colours can be
quantified by measuring their saturation and luminance values, as determined by a colour palette
paradigm. Consistency in matching colours to graphemes across repeated trials can also be
measured. Personality traits have also been quantified through the use of self-report
questionnaires measuring the five major traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness,
Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. Groups of individuals such as artists, people with
depression, and synaesthetes have all been characterised by scoring especially high or low on
personality trait scales. In this paper, we aim to inform the discussion regarding how personality
and perception are related by correlating personality trait scores with dimensions of colour and
degree of synaesthetic experience. Twenty grapheme-colour synaesthetes were e-mailed the Big
Five Inventory (BFI), a personality questionnaire. Their consistency scores and average colour
saturation and luminance values were calculated from data gathered by a previous study. Two
major results were found: first, that Openness to Experience predicted the perceived levels of
colour saturation, and secondly, that the degree of synaesthetic experience correlated to higher
levels of perceived luminance of colour. In conclusion, the study provides evidence that
personality and perception are intertwined, and suggests future avenues of research for
investigating the link between the two.