The role of vision in the development of sound symbolism.
(2016) CogEvo — Location: Rovereto - Italy (6.July.2016)
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- Abstract
- Sound symbolism is the universal capacity to readily match sounds with non acoustic domains, like shape or size. There is debate on whether these associations are innate, or get established during the ontogenesis on the basis of experience. In line with the ontogenetic hypothesis a recent study suggested that the lack of visual experience may prevent the development of sound-symbolic associations. Indeed, other studies have shown a deficit in multisensory (auditory-tactile) integration in early blind people, and the capacity of integrate information across senses might be at the basis of sound symbolism. In this study we tested this hypothesis in two experiments with sighted and early blind participants. Experiment 1 was a 3-D version of the classic Bouba-Kiki experiment, in which spiky and round shapes are spontaneously associated with “spiky” or “round” sounds. Experiment 2 was an Implicit Assosiation Test (IAT) in which participants had to rapidly classify object names (e.g., coin, vase) as “big” or “small” together with the two pseudo-words Mil and Mal (that convey sound symbolic reference to size). Sound symbolic effects emerged both in sighted and blind participants in both experiments and no significant difference was found across the groups. Our results suggest that sound symbolism develop despite early lack of vision and cast doubts on theories attributing a role of vision in the development of (non visual) cross-modal correspondences.
- Affiliations
University of Trento Center for Mind/Brain CIMeC
Citations
Barilari, M., Bottini, R., & Collignon, O. (2016). The role of vision in the development of sound symbolism. CogEvo, Rovereto - Italy. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/100465