Synaesthesia Stuff

Synaesthesia and Memory

There have been quite a few studies looking at whether synesthetes have above average memory. Some conclude that synesthetes in general have above average memories (but they don't explain why). Others conclude that it is only for certain types of memory.

One study looking specifically at grapheme-colour synesthetes found that they performed better than controls when remembering words, rather than in other tasks (auditory, for example). They also found that the synesthetes performed worse than controls when the words were presented in different colours.

So, all of this is interesting, and I would definitely agree that I cannot separate my synaesthesia from my memory. It is the only way I can remember dates, and is a bid help when it comes to names and spelling.

However, no study I can find looks at possible negative impacts on memory, apart from the different colours variation (which I can definitely relate to, but isn't really applicable in everyday situations where we use our memory.

During GCSE chemistry, I had a really hard time remembering all the scales we needed to know off by heart. I know this is far from uncommon, but my specific problem was less so.

My main problem was the pH scale. If you're not familiar with it, here's the version you need to know for the GCSE:

You need to know what colour corresponds to what number. A pain, but one I could deal with. My problem is that 6 is emphatically green. And 7 is lilac. So when faced with a simple question about what number is neutral, I always default to 6, because I know neutral is green. I simply cannot wrap my head around the idea that 7 could be green. It's impossible.

This is one very specific example, but I think it demonstrates how synaesthesia can interfere with your memory pretty well.

(I could also explain the pain of trying to learn your times tables, especially when the numbers are not only the wrong colour to match, but also have *opinions* about it. I won't though, because that would be a whole chapter on its own.)

Another thing the study I mentioned earlier found was that while synesthetes tended to remember more random words or letters, they did not necessarily remember them in the right order.

This is something I can also attest to. I can normally tell you all the numbers in a date or password, but I cannot tell you the order they are in, so I may end up 100 years out from where I was supposed to be, simply because I switched the numbers around in my brain.

I don't know why this happens, but I think it might be because the part of our memory responsible for sequencing does not work in multi-media. In other words, you can remember the colour or the order, not both.

Another thing that I, and my friends with synaesthesia, do is mix up letters most people don't. I tend to be pretty good with letters that look the same, because they have very different colours. Letters that are the same colour on the other hand...

This is a pain, because sometimes when I can't remember a word, I can remember what colour it starts with. So I'll say, "It starts with a 'w' or an 'o'," for example, if it starts with dark blue. (Just to be clear, they're not the same dark blue, but close enough to get muddled.) And people tend not to believe me, because they can't see how those two letters relate.

These are just a few examples of the way grapheme-colour synaesthesia can screw over your memory. Yes it can be useful, but we don't all have magic memory skills. A lot of us mix things up very easily.

Saying any of this aloud often requires a big explanation of why, no, I'm not crazy. Why can't we teach people about all the wonderful and sometimes infuriating ways their brain might work?

Sorry for another long rant, but this is something I am fed up of. I need a space to vent.

Think in rainbows!