Chromaesthesia Chimps ...no Cross-Modal Primates!

Spence, C. (2012)’Crossmodal correspondences: Innate or learned? ’i- Perception. 3, pp 316-318. Pion [Online]Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1068/i0526ic (Accessed 26/01/2012)

This document discusses a study by Ludwig,Adachi and Matzuzawa (2011) where Chimpanzee’s displayed the ability to cross over senses by linking sound and vision in an equal manner to that of humans. It also discusses the delicate nature of being able to allocate the term synaesthetes to the primates because some will argue that Chimpanzees are as susceptible to environmental influences where associations between colour / hue /lightness and sound can be learned. This means that even Chimpanzees are able to associate brightness with things higher and perhaps smaller, ie birds in the sky who sing sweet sounds as opposed to heavy sound and colour from the darker hue of an elephant which is low on the ground and therefore darker and louder when it makes noise.

It does however conclude that this study does show an innate ability in both humans and primates to link sound with colour and shape and the crossmodal term seems to be the best to apply until further studies reveal more compelling data.