The field of color correlations in Russian-speaking grapheme-colour synesthetes as a biosociocultural paradigm

Peshchanitskaia Elena Vladimirovna Master's degree; Faculty of Sociology; Smolensk State University Researcher at the Color Laboratory; Smolensk State University 214000, Russia, Smolensk region, Smolensk, Przhevalskogo str., 4 ScarletReindeer@yandex.ru

Introduction

Synesthesia (from the Greek συναίσθηση ("together" + "sensation")), which is by its nature both a neurophysiological phenomenon and a sociocultural phenomenon, is one of the most paradoxical objects of interdisciplinary research. Its versatility is already evident in the ambiguity of the approach to its definition. From the first–mentioned point of view, synesthesia is a feature of perception in which stimulation of one sensory organ, along with sensations specific to it, causes an involuntary, automatic reaction in the form of sensations corresponding to another sensory organ. From the second point of view, synesthesia is an "individual neurocognitive strategy", a "special way of cognition" ^{[1, p. 1] [2, p. 1]}, which, together with an individual's thinking, determines his attitude to the surrounding reality, including social reality, and forms social behavior (primarily communicative). A person with congenital or natural synesthesia is called a "synesthete" or (less commonly) a "synesthetic."

As A.V. Sidorov-Dorso and S. aptly point out. Day, the paradox of synesthesia is "multifaceted and growing" ^{[3, p. 20]}. The mentioned ambivalence of interpretation of this phenomenon, due to a complex and proportionally still undefined combination of experience, environmental factors and genetic predisposition in its occurrence and development ^{[4, p. 12] [5, p. 63]}, is by no means the only side of this paradox. Another aspect of it is the polarity of the attitude of science and society towards synesthesia: on the one hand, both scientific and everyday thought often assume its pathological nature, on the other hand, at the same time, phenomenal creative and cognitive abilities are often attributed to synesthetes a priori ^{[6, p. 22]}. Both a skeptical attitude towards synesthetic experience, which can generate situations of misunderstanding or even condemnation and rejection, and a kind of "presumption of genius" that forms certain expectations about the owner of synesthesia, can have a significant impact on the social well-being of the latter and become a source of tension.

Further, significant research contradictions are created by mutually exclusive statements about the demography of synesthesia, in particular, about its extreme rarity or, conversely, relative prevalence: data range from 1 in 4 or 1 in 23 people ^{[7, p. 3]} to 1 in 2000 or 1 in 25,000–100,000 people ^{[8, p. 98]}, from the occurrence of synesthesia equally in representatives of both sexes ^{[9, p. 148]} to the gender ratio of 5:1 in favor of women ^{[10, p. 21]}.

In addition, there is a scientific discussion about the typology and correlation of different types of synesthesia, in particular natural and artificial. The conditions and causes that give rise to synesthesia, the possibilities of its "provocation", similarities and differences in the manifestations of synesthesia depending on its origin are discussed. For example, artificially induced types of synesthesia include post-traumatic, intoxication, spontaneous (one-time), cognitive (associative, verbal, operative), etc. In other words, in addition to external factors (drug use, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, traumatic brain injuries, synesthetic perception can be caused by training associative thinking using, among other things, sociocultural associations (linguistic units, objects of reality) ^{[11, p. 153]}.

Finally, one of the central issues regarding synesthesia is the validity of the claim that everyone's brain is potentially synesthetic, and synesthetic experiences are or may become universal. In this regard, the concept of the so-called "continuum of synesthetic manifestations" arose: from "strong" (atypical, unique) congenital cases to "weak", universal manifestations characteristic of the cognitive sphere of each person. The following observations allow us to establish qualitative similarity relations between synesthetic experiences of different people: firstly, innate synesthetes themselves report the formation of similar intersensory correspondences (for example, it is believed that the letter "A" corresponds to the red color in most of them) ^{[12, p. 174] [13]}; secondly, a number of manifestations synesthesia is similar to generally accepted associative patterns (light — light, bitter — dark, etc.); thirdly, for the formation of experiences in synesthetes, interaction with culturally specific phenomena, the most important social constructs, is necessary ^{[3, p. 25]}.

Thus, the most common type of synesthesia is grapheme-color, which involves the perception of letters and (or) numbers in color (occurs in 1% of the population; graphemes act as stimuli of synesthetic sensations in 65% of cases of synesthesia) ^{[11; 151]}. It is quite obvious that every grapheme is a sign, and a sign, in turn, being both a social construct and a carrier of social information, is capable of forming stable images in consciousness, which are actually perceived as social images. Moreover, for a synesthete, the sign content plan will always be expanded compared to that of a non-synesthete, since it will contain additional information (in the case of grapheme-color synesthesia, color), due to which it will be able to acquire additional meanings. In this regard, it is of particular interest to study the specific correlations between graphemes and colors found in synesthetes.

The purpose of this study is to quantify and qualitatively assess the representation of colors and color combinations in the synesthetic perception of letters of the Russian alphabet and Arabic numerals and to substantiate the socio-cultural potential of grapheme-color synesthesia.

The object of the study is the grapheme-color correspondences presented in text, graphic or mixed form by "synesthetic palettes", which are publicly available by Russian-speaking synesthetes; the subject is the structure of color choices in the characterization of graphemes by synesthetes.

Methods

This study presents an analysis of examples of grapheme-color correspondences published by Russian-speaking synesthetes in open access on the Internet in the form of verbal descriptions, images, or in mixed form (images accompanied by comments). The research database includes 25 data sets in the form of the ratios "letter of the Russian alphabet – color" and 23 data sets "Arabic numeral from 0 to 9 – color". The gender composition of synesthetes – the authors of the analyzed "synesthetic palettes" is as follows:

(1) alphanumeric color matches: 16 women; 6 men; 3 synesthetes who did not specify gender;

(2) Digital-color correspondences:17 women; 5 men; 1 synesthete who did not specify the gender.

Information about the age of synesthetes has not been established, as they are not publicly available.

Due to the difference in data presentation formats, in order to increase information content and minimize distortion during interpretation, the shades indicated by synesthetes were combined into the following macrogroups (hereinafter referred to as groups):

letter–color matches: yellow, green, white, red, brown, black, blue, gray, light blue, purple, orange, pink, beige, gradients and color combinations;

Number–color matches: yellow, green, white, red, brown, black, blue, gray, light blue, purple, orange, pink, transparent, gradients and color combinations.

Note that the group "gradients and color combinations" combines single, non-repeating matches. For the "number–color" correspondences, a separate "transparent" group is highlighted, since this designation has been repeatedly used by synesthetes in this form.

It is also necessary to identify some limitations regarding the study. Thus, a number of synesthetes indicated color matches for not all letters of the alphabet; the letters "b" and "b" were most often omitted, in some cases - "e", "w", "s", "e". Regarding the first two letters mentioned, we assume that their omission may be due to the fact that they do not denote individual sounds, which is why synesthetes either miss the colors corresponding to them from their attention, or do not "see" their colors at all. Further, due to the low or at least fluctuating occurrence of the phenomenon of synesthesia, the amount of data itself is limited, which, in turn, can lead to a decrease in representativeness. In addition, the presence of synesthesia in individuals who are data sources has been established only on the basis of self–reports without confirmation in the form of "truth tests". Finally, there is no guarantee that the synesthete's choice of a particular shade was purposeful and was not the result of gross generalization or carelessness in choosing a verbal or graphic color designation or a consequence of poor image quality (the effect of this restriction is minimized by introducing color groups).

The full "color maps" of the Russian alphabet and numbers from 0 to 9 are shown in Figures 1-2. The cells, colored according to the color groups we entered, contain the number of synesthetes who indicated the color belonging to this group as corresponding to this letter (number). For brevity, color names are specified only for gradients and color combinations, as well as for the "transparent" group (to avoid confusion with the "white" group). Within a single column, the groups are sorted by the number of mentions.

Fig. 1. The "color map" of the Russian alphabet

Fig. 2. "Color map" of Arabic numerals from 0 to 9

Further, for each of the "color maps" (for letters and for numbers separately), 3 indicators were calculated for each color:

(1) the number of leading positions occupied by a color (in other words, the number of times a given color became the most popular match for a grapheme);

(2) the number of graphemes that color was used to describe;

(3) the absolute number of mentions (a mention, as noted earlier, means that a synesthete indicates a color belonging to a given group as corresponding to a letter (number) – in other words, a verbal or graphic color designation).

Based on the found values, the colors were ranked. In addition, the calculated indicators were converted into percentages of all possible leading positions, described graphemes and the total number of color values, rounded to hundredths, respectively. After that, based on a comparative analysis of the indicators calculated for alphanumeric and numeric color correspondences, as well as calculations based on the positions of each of the colors in the ranked lists of average rank values, the most and least represented color groups in synesthetic perception were determined.

To assess the "color diversity" of general and individual synesthetic correspondences, indexes were used that are widely used in environmental studies to assess ecosystem biodiversity, but at the same time have proven effective in color research ^{[14, pp. 1018-1019]}. In order to ensure maximum accuracy of the results, we have used three indexes:

(1) The Shannon index, calculated using the formula

where S is the number of identified species, pi is the proportion of the ith species in the community ^{[15, p. 37]};

(2) The Margalef index, calculated by the formula

,

where S is the number of identified species, N is the total number of individuals of all identified species ^{[16, p. 323] [17, p. 1058]};

(3) the Simpson index, calculated by the formula

where ni is the number of individuals of the i-th species, N is the total number of individuals of all identified species ^{[16, p. 328]}.

The first two indexes are used to assess the species richness of a given ecosystem; the latter is directly proportional to the index value. The third one is designed to assess the uniformity of the distribution of individual individuals and the dominance of species and also reflects the probability that two randomly selected individuals from an indefinitely large community will turn out to be representatives of different species; the value ranges from 0 to 1.

In the framework of our study, color groups act as "species", and their corresponding verbal and graphic color definitions act as "individuals". The "ecosystem", therefore, is the field of general or individual synesthetic correspondences.

Results and discussion

An analysis of the data obtained (see Tables 1-3) showed that, in general, the most "popular" colors within the framework of synesthetic correspondences, both alphanumeric and numeric, are blue, green and yellow. It is noteworthy that these colors are related to a certain extent: firstly, mixing blue and yellow gives green; secondly, given that each color group is represented by different shades (including yellow-green, blue-green), these colors, being located side by side on the color wheel, they form an analog triad. The data currently available to us does not allow us to draw a confident conclusion about whether this circumstance is a coincidence or a pattern, but it should be taken into account for further research. In addition, in the light of this, there is an assumption that synesthetes may have color perception features that distinguish them from non-synesthetes.

In this regard, it is worth noting the following facts that support this assumption. So, earlier, using diffusion tensor MRI, the following functional difference was found in the brain of synesthetes: during the presentation of a synesthetic stimulus, the brain regions responsible for the perception of the stimulus and reaction are activated with greater intensity. In particular, grapheme-color synesthetes exhibit stronger conjugate activation of the areas of perceptual color processing (V4) and the visual form of a word; at the same time, their activation occurs with a difference of a few fractions of a second (about 5 ms) ^{[18, p. 635]}.

As for the "outsider" groups, these turned out to be: blue, pink, beige (for alphanumeric color matches) / transparent (for numeric color matches), and orange. Separately, we note a group of gradients and color combinations formed by unique, non-repeating combinations, including from two to three colors. Moreover, the forms of their visual representation vary significantly and involve such elements as: shadows ("white with a voluminous gray shadow"), contours ("white with a green outline"), background ("white on a black background") and even blinking – color change ("like a flashing color, then there is, I don't understand if they are black [letters] or white"). This predictably indicates a highly individualized synesthetic perception, its versatility and ambiguity even within the experience of a single synesthete.

Table 1

Calculations of indicators based on alphanumeric color matches (rounded to hundredths)

Table 2

Calculations of indicators based on digital and color correspondences (rounded to hundredths)

Table 3

Representation of color groups in synesthetic perception (final ranked list based on the average of all received ranks)

This is also evidenced by the fact that for most graphemes, a sharp predominance of any "observed" color over others has not been established; the gradation of color preferences is quite smooth. Only a few exceptions can be noted: for example, for the letter "A", the choice of red color clearly prevails, for "B" and "E" – green, for "O" – white, for "F" – purple, for "W" and "W" – brown, for "I" – red. Interestingly, for the digits "0" and "1", achromatic colors predominate significantly, while for the letters "O" and "0", which are similar in shape, the dominant color is white. Interestingly, our results are consistent with data from foreign studies regarding Latin letters that are similar in spelling: for foreign synesthetes, the letter "A" is red, and the letter "O" is white or black ^{[6, p. 22][19, p. 1073][20, p. 78]}. In this regard, we emphasize that at the moment, for researchers of synesthesia, the question of what exactly is the trigger for its grapheme-color variety is the shape of the grapheme or its meaning.

An assessment of the color diversity of grapheme perception by synesthetes showed that the individual field of synesthetic correspondences uses an average of 10 color groups for letters and 8 for numbers. The calculated values of the indices indicate a moderate "species richness" and a fairly high uniformity of the distribution of color values between the groups as a whole and among individual synesthetes (see Tables 4-5, Fig. 3-4).

Table 4

Diversity index values for general synesthetic correspondences (rounded to hundredths)

Table 5

Diversity index values for individual synesthetic correspondences (rounded to hundredths)

3. Assessment of the color diversity of individual synesthetic perception of the letters of the Russian alphabet

4. Assessment of the color diversity of individual synesthetic perception of Arabic numerals from 0 to 9

However, it is worth taking into account such factors as:

(1) the specifics of the subject of the study: the lack of motivation of synesthetic correspondences ^{[21, p. 193]}; the rarity of synesthesia, limiting the amount of available data; a fixed, deliberately determined limit on the number of graphemes under consideration (since 33 letters of the Russian alphabet and 10 Arabic numerals are well–known constants); at the same time, a relatively free form of data representation, allowing the combination of graphic and verbal descriptions and (or) the omission of certain graphemes by individual synesthetes; the relationship between the need to introduce a limited number of color groups and the high variability within them;

(2) the specifics of the indices used and their specific application: the "metaphorical" application of the indices to the subject of the study; the sensitivity of the indices to various conditions (for example, the Simpson index is very sensitive to the presence of abundant species in the sample, but weakly depends on species richness, while the Shannon and Margalef indices show sensitivity to sample size) ^{[15, p. 76] [22, p. 550]}; characteristic values of the indices in real conditions when used for their intended purpose: for example, the Shannon index usually varies from 1.5 to 3.5, very rarely exceeding 4.5 ^{[15, p. 38]}.

Interpreting the data we obtained taking into account the totality of these circumstances, we believe that in relation to the subject under study, these indicators demonstrate not just a moderate, but rather a moderately high level of color diversity of synesthetic correspondences.

At the same time, it should be noted that there is a significant qualitative diversity of colors "observed" by synesthetes: both spectral and non-spectral colors are represented in many shades, and a very wide variability is typical even for achromatic colors. This variability was manifested both in cases of representation of individual "synesthetic palettes" in the form of images and in verbal descriptions. When compiling the latter, many synesthetes paid increased attention to accuracy, emphasizing the transmission of such color characteristics as tone ("pink-lilac", gray-lilac", "brown-beige", "gray, slightly lilac"), lightness ("maroon", light yellow", "light-light blue"), brightness ("dull green", "bright blue") and (less often) saturation ("saturated red"). The color names used by synesthetes are no less diverse: an extensive group of them deserves special mention, linking synesthetic perception with various categories of objects of reality ("asphalt", "birch-white", "cocoa plus a little milk", etc.). The fact is that, in general, synesthetic experiences are very difficult to describe and do not always respond well to it, which forces synesthetes to look for various means of bringing their experience into an understandable form. Note that synesthetic color definitions themselves are valuable material for a separate study.

All of the above once again testifies to the contradictory nature of synesthesia, in which the individualization and unmotivation of intersensory (in this case grapheme-color) correspondences are intertwined with the "universality" of individual manifestations and the significance of the form and meaning of the grapheme. The following observations are also related to the same thing, which is also quite expected: despite the fact that we have identified the most "popular" and "unpopular" colors among synesthetes, this ratio is built up in its own way for each individual with synesthesia; some synesthetes use a large number of spectral and non–spectral colors and shades in their correspondence system Some of them are limited only to spectral ones, and some synesthetes "observe" only a small number of colors (for example, one of the "synesthetic palettes" considered in our study includes only 12 shades).

As an example of the potential practical application of the results of our research in a socio-cultural context, we give the following. We believe that using synesthetic grapheme-color palettes (in particular, due to the existence of "synesthetic universals") in the color field of a particular space, it is possible to encode messages: from the name of a given place or the corresponding generic concept to the functions performed by it or the ideas and concepts describing it. This can be implemented at different levels.: both for an individual who can design his place of residence based on his own palette in this way, and for public spaces and entire cities. Accordingly, it creates an opportunity to express the most significant semantic aspects of a given space and (or) increase its comfort for certain social groups ^{[23, p. 108]}. In addition, in this case, an unusual tool for shaping urban identity arises – a particular city forms its own unique synesthetic palette and, accordingly, a system for encoding messages in the color space.

Conclusion

Thus, synesthesia, especially its grapheme-color variety, demonstrates an exceptionally wide variability of manifestations; its contradictory nature in all respects, combining neurophysiological and socio-cultural factors of formation, makes it possible to identify both common and different tendencies for synesthetes to choose intersensible correspondences. The grapheme as a sign acquires an expanded content for the synesthete due to the inclusion of a color component in it and special connections between the planes of expression and content in the context of motivating the correspondence between grapheme and color. In this regard, we consider it advisable to raise for further research the question of the relationship with synesthetic color perception of graphemes of socio-cultural color associations, as well as psychological aspects of color perception in terms of the influence of color on the emotional state (for example, does the color of the letters that make up the word affect the emotional perception of the synesthete?).

Due to the possibilities of color coding of social space based on the diversity of the field of synesthetic correspondences with the simultaneous existence of "synesthetic universals", the statement that the city can be read as a text ^{[24, p. 31]} acquires a fundamentally new meaning – it turns into a text in fact in the literal sense of the word, and into a text that may not be It is not only read in its existing form, but also purposefully "written" in the desired way.