Photo: Nadine Esche People automatically associate certain shapes with certain sounds.
How do our senses, like vision, hearing, and touch, work together to create the perception of the world around us' A new study by scientists at Universität Hamburg finds that commonly found associations between shapes and sounds might rely on childhood vision. The results were published in the journal Psychological Science. People of virtually all cultures and ethnicities, including ethnicities without a writing system, automatically associate certain shapes with certain sounds. Words with high-pitch sound (like "Kiki") are usually associated with angular and spiky shapes, whereas words with low-pitch sounds (like "Bouba") are associated with round and smooth shapes. Are these multisensory associations innate, or do we develop them over our lifetime? Furthermore, what role does the ability to see shapes in childhood play in the development of these associations? The research group Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology, headed by Brigitte Röder, tackled these questions in the new study. The overarching concept behind studies like these is the existence of sensitive periods in development. In sensitive periods, the developing brain is especially receptive for learning specific functions.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
