Daniel Row Communication Senior Seminar Capstone Research Project Dr.

Kate Simcox 12/11/13

Sounding out Synesthesia: A study of the communication of synesthetes Introduction: Synesthesia, or the crossing and union of senses experienced by a projected 4% of the population is a condition that has become a rather interesting topic of study over the past few decades (Cytowic, Books). Though scientists have been aware of the condition for centuries, it wasnt really until neuropsychologist Dr. Richard Cytowic began to study the condition seriously in the 1980s that it became more widely known to the general population. For myself, synesthesia became a particularly fascinating study when a friend began talking about it during our sophomore year of college. I realized that what she was describing, though very different than my perception of the world, was similar in many ways. Understandably, it came as a shocking realization after twenty years of living to realize that my perceptions and experiences of the world were quite different from what I understood as normal. This got me thinking: how many others out there are who are prevented from understanding their own experiences? I tried to explain my synesthesia to others, but in large part, I hit a wall trying to find words that made sense to others and that accurately encapsulated my experience. Realizing this difficulty with language, I decided to attempt to study it further to see what lied at the root of this linguistic and psychological quandary. As I began my research two main questions came to mind: RQ 1: How can one apply the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativism to Synesthesia? Can it be seen that language is a barrier to synesthetes? RQ 2: How do other synesthetes perceive and use language to express, share, and enhance their perceptions of reality? Though synesthesia may still be a bit of an obscure condition that affects only a relatively small portion of the worlds population, the insights gained from a study like this still hold a great deal of value. We constantly find flaws in our language so if one in about twenty four people are unable to express such a significant and distinct part of their perceptions then it is easy to imagine that there are probably many more ways in which people fail to understand things about themselves and others.

Literature Review: Though there has been much research about synesthesia, most of its study has been from a scientific or psychological point of view. As this is a study about the

Row 2 communication of synesthetes, I decided to do further research into the language of the group and some of the overarching characteristics of the condition. As well, I searched for any ties to language in the perception of synesthetic reactions. I found that from very early on in his research, Dr. Richard Cytowic had dealt with synesthetes who were struggling to find the language to express their condition. One synesthete who wrote to him spoke of seeing color when she heard music, but, she noted, Im not sure that seeing is the most accurate description. I am seeing, but not with my eyes if that makes sense (The Man Who Tasted Shapes 118). Cytowic commented on this, saying, These people were trying to explain the ineffable, that which by definition cannot be put into words (119). In Cytowics book, Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses, he comments on what happens when he observes a group of synesthetes meeting and speaking for the first time. He says that they, All apologize frequently. I know this sounds crazy but . . . They also learned to stop talking about their green symphonies, salty visions, and tastes that feel like glass columns years ago when they realized they were different, and that no one else understood (15). This makes sense if seen through the lens of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis of linguistic relativity. This theory posits that person-in-conversation co-construct their own social world. (Griffin 43). In other words, language and the ability to express ones perceptions shape how one sees the world. Even more interesting, our current understanding of synesthesia is that it is tied to our perceptions of reality, though synesthetic perceptions themselves are understood as removed from that reality. Synaesthesia (sic), more clearly than other linguistic expressions and phenomena involves two broad categories of human experience [] sensory experience [and] introspective or subjective experience. The interplay of physiological and cognitive factorsis both constrained and enriched by a specific linguistic system and by the set of features of context. (Ronga 144). That is, it seems, even the perceptions of synesthesia are different from person to person depending on their global context, their language, and their worldview. When looking to better understand implications of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, researchers found similar results. Researchers showed subjects a variety of colors ranging from blue to green on the spectrum and asked them what color it would be. They found that there seemed to be a threshold at which people would stop calling a color just blue or just green and call it blue-green. But it seemed this was different based on the person in question and their understanding of what each colors name really meant and that this might vary based on the subjects language and linguistic associations of color (Kay and Willet 68).

Hypothesis: Given the current research surrounding synesthesia, it seems to me that synesthetes have a certain degree of muteness in their situation. Additionally, the current system of language in place is insufficient to explain synesthetic responses and may cause distress in synesthetes when interacting with non-synesthetic individuals. With this in mind, I suspect that synesthetes may have very different realities before and after identifying as synestheticnot in their perceptions of reality, but in their interactions with their perceptions as well as with those around them. This report aims to analyze any

Row 3 trends in the communicative patterns of synesthetes as well as how their experiences have shaped the way they think about and speak about their synesthesia.

Method: For this study, I interviewed four synesthetes. All four of them were female, as synesthesia is a more common condition among women than men (Carpenter). I asked all four participants the same questions but two of the interviews were administered over Facebook while two were done in person. These interviews were administered according to guidelines laid out by Arthur Asa Berger in his text, Media and Communication Research Methods, namely chapter 7 which deals with interviews. I asked multiple questions throughout the interviews, but in the end, I found that ten provided relevant feedback for this study. The participants, referred to as S1, S2, etc. (standing for Synesthete 1, 2, etc.) were ensure anonymity and were given as much time as they needed to answer questions and in some cases needed some clarification before answering. These ten questions as well as the respondents answers are recorded in figure 1-1.

Results: Figure 1-1

S1 S2 S3 S4 Q1: What is your age, gender, race? 23, Female, Fillipino21, Female, White/Caucasian American (first generation) Q2: What forms of Synesthesia do you have? Sound-Sight: Colored pitch Lexical-Gustatory

21, Female, White/Caucasian

22, Female, White/Caucasian,

Grapheme-color, chromesthesia, personification, and very occasional lexical-gustatory synesthesia

Sound to sensation (sound to touch), sound-color, and some blips of others, as well as emotional connections tolots of things, not just music Forever. My earliest memory is when I was like five.

Q3: How long have you had synesthetic experiences? As long as I can remember. Since I can remember Honestly before I knew I had it, I thought everyone else experienced music the way I did. Q4: How long have you known you were synesthetic? About six years. I learned about it when I was a senior in high school. Since being in college. My roommate pointed it out to me. (approx. 3.5 years) I have always had synesthetic experiences

I was twelve and my father and I saw a T.V. show about it.

I self-identified about four years ago. It was my freshman year of college. Before I heard about it, I thought everyone experienced it the way I did, but as I learned about it, I learned I was a little different.

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Q5: Have you ever had difficulty expressing your synesthetic perceptions? Yes. What comes with synesthesia is a heightened visual memory, so I always more for a visual learner and explainer. Not only that, but I depended on music to be a form of communication. Also, English wasnt my first language, so that might also play a part in that. I do have difficulty expressing I was in a choir, my senior my synesthetic perceptions to year of high school and there those without synesthesia, but was an adjudicator judging us, I can easily communicate with and she was conducting our others who also have the group and she asked us, What condition. I also easily color is this song? I thought understand other synesthetes this was an interesting perceptions, even though they question, but a girl raised her may not be the same as my hand and was like, Oh this own. For example, there is a song is definitely light blue, passage in Nabokovs Speak, and I remember being so mad Memory about his synesthesia at her. I was like, This is not a and I understand exactly what light blue song. I didnt say it he means. However, when I out loud, but inside I was like, read about others perceptions Oh my gosh, because I that are different that my own, really thought it was pink. But they often make me then everyone else started uncomfortable. Like when agreeing with her and it just Nabokov describes his made me so mad. grapheme colors, I get uncomfortable because it seems unnatural and, in a way, perverted. Q6: Did your ability to express how you understood the world change before and after you knew you were synesthetic? Difficulty expressing myself I have found that after I has existed before and after I identified, its easier to identified as synesthetic. After express it because I can more I began to identify with the clearly understand how other condition it was easier to be people are compared to myself able to articulate my seeming and I can express it that way. disconnect with others. I guess Other times there are still it takes some of the pressure things some people cant off of me. comprehend about it. Q7: Have you ever felt uncomfortable expressing your synesthetic perceptions? Nope, Im a weirdo. People It sometimes feels a bit Sometimes it does make me a I do feel uncomfortable expect that of me. awkward when people first bit uncomfortable to describe sometimes because Im not find out and arbitrarily pick synesthetic experiences on the sure how seriously other words and say, What does spot. people take it. blank taste like? Like its a game and Im a show animal. Q8 How did you start expressing or explaining your synesthetic perceptions to others? That is, what words or techniques did you use to explain it to others (either before or after identification of synesthesia) I started in an art class. I took I try to put it into easier to Before discovering I was I keep in mind that, though art all throughout high school, understand terms (like sweet synesthetic at around twelve synesthesia is and abstract and depended on music to and salty, bitter and sour) years old, I assumed everyone concept, I believe its still help me artistically. Upon shared my perceptions. But rooted in things that exist learning that I was synesthetic, occasionally people wouldn't somewhat. For example, I see I tried to express what I heard know what I meant when I a lot of these colors on what I in my paintings. That would tried to describe something. call the movie screen in my be the first time I tried to After discovering I had the head, like where my forehead visually express my condition, I started to use the is. That I didnt really have to synesthesia. I would listen to word "screen" to describe the think about to explain, like Learning I was synesthetic and had heightened visual memory, I was able to learn how to express myself to people who didnt understand music. This was more helpful to non-musical friends than musical ones. The world didnt really change as much as it informed my daily experiences. Its hard to explain my synesthesia to people because I taste words, so when I speak its like licking their vocabulary, which doesnt make sense to most people. For the majority, words range from sweet to bitter, rather than have a particular food association which makes describing how a word tastes difficult. Its almost a Lickert Scale of taste and words fall somewhere between bubblegum and Vitamin C.

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music while painting, and put place in mid vision where I when I see numbers in front of the piece of music or song on see color and pattern, me. Its like a dial. Im not repeat for the duration of the especially in sight to sound sure if its always been so class period to finish the synesthesia. It's sort of tangible, but as Ive explained artwork. Explaining it projected onto a screen behind it, it becomes easier to verbally, I used words like, I my eyes, but it's not a serious understand when I describe it see this color over there, obstruction to my vision. (I in physical space. with a little streak of suchcan still drive, etc.) and-such color or It's sort of overwhelming. There are so many colors to try to explain. They happen like... fireflies? In my peripheral. Q11: Have you ever had difficulty making your perceptions understandable to others with synesthesia or have you ever had problems understanding other synesthetes perceptions? No. People seem to get a My one friend who is a I have never spoken in depth, I think we all sort of get what good grasp of it. "She hears a synesthete is not of the same in person to another were talking about, or at least pitch and she sees a color." kind. She hears color. We synesthete, so I can't be sure if we have the capacity to Where I see the color is a don't understand each other. they would have a difficult understand. We at least have whole different story. I see the time understanding my the ability to agree to disagree. colors in my peripheral and experience. Like if you (as a synesthete) they're as fleeting as our lives were to tell me that you saw here on earth. They're like... some sound were as a color I colorful vapors or fireflies. It didnt agree, Id be less mad. bleeds in around the edges the Theyre all very different louder the sound is. experiences.

From these questions, a few interesting patterns arise. Firstly, though all have very different forms of synesthesia, it all functions similarly in that they all remember having experiences as long as they can remember. It also seems that none of them realized their difference at first. S3 realized it the earliest at age 12, but the other three didnt realize until about age eighteen. All four have had at least some difficulty explaining their synesthesia to others. S1, S2, and S3, all had some level difficulty expressing how their synesthetic perceptions varied from physical ones, while S4 instead had difficulty dealing with a (presumed) nonsynesthetes presumption about a synesthetic topic. After identification, all subjects but S2 expressed having an easier time relating to others and others perceptions. S2 and S4 both mentioned a certain level of discomfort when non-synesthetes dont take their perceptions seriously and write it off as a game or party trick while S1 expressed no discomfort talking about it whatsoever. Interestingly, both S3 and S4 used the word screen when describing their colored sound synesthesia, and all the subjects tried to equate their synesthetic perceptions with metaphorical imagery or correlations with physical perceptions. Lastly, there is some variance on the understanding of other synesthtetes synesthesia. S1 and S4 both expressed relative ease while communicating with other synesthetes. On the other hand S2 and S3 both suggested some disconnect with fellow synesthetes. S3 went so far as to say another synesthetes perceptions seemed unnatural and perverted in a way.

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Discussion and Conclusions: Synesthesia is tricky business, theres no doubt about that. Looking at how synesthetes talk about their perceptions makes it clear why there has been such confusion about it over the past few decades. Early in Cytowics research, he assumed that only about ten in a million people experience synesthesia (The Man Who Tasted Shapes 6). Later on, the numbers led researchers to believe synesthetes were as common as one in 2000 (Carpenter). Now, however, the numbers are quite different: about one in twenty seven (Carlsen). Since its rediscovery and introduction to mainstream science and psychology, I theorize that the number of synesthetes keeps skyrocketing because people know how to talk about the experiences theyve been having their entire life. My hypothesis seems to hold true that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis can be applied to the case of synesthesia. All of these subjects answered that for a good portion of their lives, they lived not realizing that their perceptions vastly differed from others. Several reported that they, thought everyone experienced what they did. Moreover, many said that they have had an easier time explaining their perceptions to others or can better understand how they are different and can therefore relate better. Thus, their understandings of the world around them are entirely shaped by the language they are given. In the case of synesthesia, it seems that the linguistic tools are rather sparse and unfair to synesthetes. Language is already tricky when trying to describe perception (for example, try explaining what the color red looks like). For synesthetes the linguistic landscape is particularly barren. When trying to equate synesthetic perception to a real perception, many of the subjects echoed the remark Cytowic recorded. It was like seeing but not with eyes. When asked a follow-up question about the difference between feeling sound and feeling touch, S4 responded that, Feeling the music is like its slightly under my skin. Its deeper. Like my skin is the crust of the earth and music is magma flowing beneath. S1 also responded very metaphorically, saying that her perception of colored sounds is like, fireflies, or, theyre as fleeting as our lives here on earth. One can see how language like this might mute a group according to Kramaraes muted group theory. Groups that are muted are people belonging to low-power groups who must change their language when communicating publicly, thus, their ideas are often overlooked (Griffin 461). Synesthetes must change their language to fit what others understand, not necessarily what is accurate for their perceptions. As two of the respondents noted, public communication about synesthetic perception is often disregarded or not taken seriously. To move forward, it would be beneficial if a larger scale study could be enacted. Given my standing as a college student with little access to the required funds or other resources for research, I could not perform a very large study. Moreover, I only have access to a very few amount of synesthetes given my current status. Further research could be done to see what overarching trends there may be in the language synesthetes use to define their perceptions and to communicate with one another. Given the mixed messages received bout inter-synesthete communication, it may be very interesting to see how synesthetes on the whole have found the experience.

Row 7 Synesthesia is still a relatively new concept of serious study. Its roots can be seen as very postmodern: everyone perceives reality in different ways because reality is relative based on how one sees and understands the world. Since this is still a very new concept and it does reach a relatively small audience, our understanding of it is still developing, just like that of a synesthete who is discovering that his or her understanding of the world is very different from his or her peers. Hopefully, as we move forward, well gain the same level of insight as such a synesthete and come to understand the world more richly with greater ability to reach out to others who cannot yet be understood.

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Works Cited
Berger, Arthur Asa. "Interviews." Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2000. 157-76. Print. Carlsen, Audrey. "Some People Really Can Taste The Rainbow." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. Carpenter, Siri. "Everyday Fantasia: The World of Synesthesia." Http://www.apa.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. Cytowic, Richard E. "Books." Richard Cytowic. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. Cytowic, Richard E. The Man Who Tasted Shapes. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1998. Print. Cytowic, Richard E. Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2002.Google Books. Google. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. Griffin, Emory A. A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print. Kay, Paul, and Willett Kempton. "What Is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?" American Anthropologist 86.1 (1984): 65-79. Communication and Mass Media Complete. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. Ronga, Irene, et. al. Linguistic Synesthesia, Perceptual Synesthesia, And the Interaction Between Multiple Sensory Modalities. Pragmatics and Cognition 20.1 (2012): 135-167. Communication and Mass Media Complete. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.