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  Tags: Synesthesia
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24 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
TerryW
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6358 days ago

370 posts - 783 votes 
Speaks: English*

 
 Message 17 of 24
16 April 2011 at 3:54pm | IP Logged 
This is somewhat fascinating to those of us who "don't have the power," but I'm curious why you guys are bothered by the "incorrect color" of the cover of a book, but the black print on white pages doesn't bother you?

Shouldn't the color of the words or even the individual letters of text bother you as well? Would it bother you if the paper it was printed on was tinted some pastel color?

I don't get the book cover thing. I don't think I'd like to drink cherry soda ("pop" to some of you) that is colored blue, but I sure wouldn't mind if it was red soda in a blue can (not that I ever look at the soda while drinking from a can).

Heinz put out some colored ketchup for kids in the early 2000s. Googling "color ketchup," I find articles saying that kids love it, and that every time they put out another new ketchup color, Heinz' market share increased. But I don't find much past 2003, and I sure don't see it on the shelves anymore, so that was either hype, or kids' taste has changed.

Edit: I may change my mind about this. Since these are color ketchup bottles, and not the usual clear bottle letting the actual ketchup show through, I'd really prefer a red bottle. Or would that be because I've been conditioned by seeing a clear botle of red ketchup in my fridge for my whole life?

Edited by TerryW on 16 April 2011 at 4:17pm

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ReneeMona
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5336 days ago

864 posts - 1274 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2
Studies: French

 
 Message 19 of 24
16 April 2011 at 4:10pm | IP Logged 
TerryW wrote:
This is somewhat fascinating to those of us who "don't have the power," but I'm curious why you guys are bothered by the "incorrect color" of the cover of a book, but the black print on white pages doesn't bother you?

Shouldn't the color of the words or even the individual letters of text bother you as well? Would it bother you if the paper it was printed on was tinted some pastel color?


Black letters on white paper are so common we'd all have gone crazy a long time ago if we let it bother us. To me, black is just the neutral background color and my syn fills in the actual colors. It depends on whether you're an associator or a projector but for me as an associator, the colors are there in my mind so strongly that I can almost see them on the paper when I read.

It doesn't bother me to see a couple of words or a text in a color other than black, because I'm not focusing on the individual words or letters, but a single word or letter in the wrong color does annoy me. I've never heard of a someone having a colored syn response to a piece of paper. Though, now that you mention it, if it's a square page of paper it should really be blue... ;-)
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Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6012 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 20 of 24
16 April 2011 at 7:29pm | IP Logged 
ReneeMona wrote:
TerryW wrote:
This is somewhat fascinating to those of us who "don't have the power," but I'm curious why you guys are bothered by the "incorrect color" of the cover of a book, but the black print on white pages doesn't bother you?

Shouldn't the color of the words or even the individual letters of text bother you as well? Would it bother you if the paper it was printed on was tinted some pastel color?


Black letters on white paper are so common we'd all have gone crazy a long time ago if we let it bother us. To me, black is just the neutral background color and my syn fills in the actual colors.

The human eye has two types of photoreceptors (ie things that receive light), called rods and cones. Rods pick up brightness, whereas cones pick up colour.

Rods and cones also differ in how they are distributed and used.

There are more rods in the centre of the retina, the part we read with, because rods are good at picking up detail.

There are more cones around the edges, because they're quicker, so good at picking up movement (a good demonstration of this was to look straight at a CRT monitor (no flicker) then look away, keeping the monitor in your peripheral vision (and it starts to flicker).

So neurologically speaking, black and white really aren't colours, so a colour synaesthete should never have any problems with them. Or in practical terms they are, in ReneeMona's word, neutral.
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Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5767 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 21 of 24
16 April 2011 at 8:12pm | IP Logged 
ReneeMona wrote:
Another synaesthetic pet-peeve of mine is that Esperanto is always associated with green when there's not a single green letter in the name.

Esperanto is green because hope is green. Not the word, the concept. (Plants in spring/after a rainfall.) Hope is such a strong concept that it dyes all concepts associated with it.
... for me.
Spanish has for me the colours a day has when with every breath you take you add a fine layer of sandy dust in your nostrils.

Association of memories override association of concepts, and those override synaesthetic assoociations. Opening a book that doesn't have the 'right colour' is a bit difficult but once I know that I can work with the content it doesn't bother me anymore. But I can't work with books that smell bad or have really colourful markings inside - I never highlight or underline passages myself because it hurts me to look at it afterwards.

By the way, my mom wants the turquoise bottle, but only if it contains turquoise ketchup.
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PonyGirl
Groupie
United States
Joined 5020 days ago

54 posts - 70 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German

 
 Message 23 of 24
17 April 2011 at 1:52am | IP Logged 
I'm not syn, but I would have a really hard time picking up a blue German book. German books should be red, orange, or yellow, green if you are daring. Blue would utterly throw me off and bother me. German is not a blue language! I'm sure warm "heat" colors seem perfect because of Germany's flag, but I have no idea why green seems more German than blue.
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Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 6012 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 24 of 24
17 April 2011 at 10:58am | IP Logged 
PonyGirl wrote:
I'm not syn,

According to V S Ramachandran, we all are, and that's where language comes from.
Think about it. How can reading be so similar to listening?


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