NCHC Portz Scholars Presentation: “Six is Sapphire, but is Sapphire Six? Bidirectionality and Numerosity in Grapheme-Color Synesthesis”

In grapheme-color synesthesia, numbers and letters create a color experience that is consistent, automatic, and unique to each synesthete. Recent studies have examined the way viewing graphemes elicits colors as well as the possibility of bidirectional synesthesia, in which viewing colors may elicit graphemes in the minds of synesthetes (Dixon, Smilek, Cudahy, & Merikle, 2000). This thesis addresses the issue of bidirectionality to see if specific colors elicit the information represented by graphemes in a manner that is cognitively accessible to the synesthete observer.