The Multi Layered Nature Of Synesthesia

Daniel Dennett looks to quine qualia, or completely disprove their existence, in “Quining Qualia.” He is successful in creating a theoretical framework by which many intuitive arguments for qualia can be struck down. Because of his success, an argument from introspection is difficult to make; Dennett seems to successfully refute many of the arguments given by intuition or folk psychology. I will adopt Eugene Park’s criticism in critiquing Dennett, showing that an argument from introspection can provide some insight into how qualia might exist. Park argues that relying on memory comparison is incomplete, and unfairly eliminates direct apprehensibility.

Psychic synesthesia has long been attributed to genetics. Scientists now believe synesthesia can be developed by life-threatening trauma, near-death experience, post-hypnotic suggestion or various spiritual

Synesthesia is when any two or more senses of the human body or perceptual pathways are linked. When one sense is activated so is another. So when you are eating, you may feel as if you are tasting a color instead, or when you see a color you may think of a shape. It affects 1 out of 2,000 peopled believed to be genetic, it is demonstrated more commonly in females and individuals who are left handed. Synesthesia is not diagnosed as a disease, those affected usually have average intelligence and no greater risk of mental disorders.

Reported for the first time in the 18th century, was the use of convulsive therapy.

In 1892, the British Medical Association (BMA) commissioned a team of doctors to undertake an evaluation of the nature and effects of hypnotherapy the report states:

Sound waves: Changes in pressure caused by molecules of air or fluid colliding and moving apart again.

Consciousness it is a state of awareness on both the external and internal actions and reaction toward different stimulus. Consciousness has greater impacts on our daily life and could influence survival of different organisms that lives on planet earth. The benefits is that it offers protection as it control the self .Consciousness regulate what we think and the reaction that we respond to the different experiences that we undergo on daily basis. Also, it allows us to either allow a thought or respond or terminating the thought as it might be not useful both the inner and outer experiences.

Synesthesia, or the blending of senses, is used very powerfully in this Lakota story. While the coyote is on Iktomi’s back he begins to “blue wink”. This intrigues the audience, as most have not heard of a blue wink before. The story then goes on to describe the origin of the phrase, creating a lesson about not being too prideful, within the lesson that encompasses the entire story. The use of synesthesia brings this lesson sandwich home by providing an interesting way of describing these prideful or childish moments, ensuring that the lesson will be remembered. Memorability is a goal of any trickster story as the primary motive is to impart

Perception and encoding of information in a novel way through synesthesia would theoretically act as form of deeper semantic processing that is both easier to retrieve and more durable in memory. Evidence of the use of multiple brain regions in super-memorizers could explain both a larger capacity for storage and suggest the capability of simultaneous information processing for quicker encoding and

The study of synesthesia has grown exponentially over the past few decades and as a result there is some level of ambiguity as to the scope of what defines it. Gail Martino and Lawrence Mark propose that synesthesia can be categorized into strong or weak. The former refers to those who experience “a vivid image in one sensory in response to stimulation in another”, whereas the latter is characterized as “cross-sensory correspondence[s] expressed through language, perceptual similarity and perceptual interactions during information processing” (Martino and Marks, 2001). This view implies that even the subtlest forms of cross-modal interactions that take place in the individual, albeit associating certain sounds to sight, deserve some

Life is solely based on the perspective that an individual captures; this has the capability to be subjective based on one’s nurturing as well as social forces. John Seabrook is an esoteric writer that employs synaesthesia in a unique manner in his short story, The Smell whose connotation is purely up to the reader. The changing times caused by the Immigration Act of 1990 where mass immigration took place in the United States, began creating the diversity of traditional values that is depicted within the narrative. The Chan family are the only Chinese immigrants in the Tribeca area as the homeless man, “James pointed to No.31-33 and said, ‘The Chinese’” (Seabrook 2). At this time, overall immigration was increased to 700,000 in the United States

Franz Anton Mesmer was a man whom had discovered the work of Renaissance mystic physician Paracelsus at around 1766. He tried to uncover a relationship of astrology and human health or regeneration, combining human trials and studies at around 1775, he later became increasingly unpopular amongst other physicians of his time then renounced and left country after country leaving a few followers that would later be known as "mesmerist" who would follow his footsteps and perform studies on patients. After his death, 2 of his followers announced great discoveries that consisted of sleep like states humans went through using his practices; those discoveries and revelations would later lead physicians to consider the possibility of using mesmerism as an anesthetic during surgery. James Braid another man who became interested in “mesmerism” then began his own trials in Manchester at about 1841. He is known as the father of modern hypnosis using similar methods as "mesmerism” he examined subjects and got behind the science of the human brain and its reaction under trance along with how one is hypnotized in the first place. He disproved Mesmer not wanting to be known as a follower of him and his beliefs; he renamed mesmerism, “Hypnosis”, after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. Hypnosis has been practiced and tried for over 3 centuries; you

The novel, A Mango Shaped Space, tells the story of a 13 year old girl named Mia Winchell with a disorder called synesthesia. Synesthesia is a disorder where sounds and words materialize as stunning colors. Mia is ridiculed for her condition at school, which has been undiagnosed for years. She starts failing in her math course because the condition causes patients to struggle with solving math problems. Mia finally tells her parents after years of hiding her condition.

We are replicating J.R. Stroop’s original experiment The Stroop Effect (Stroop, 1935). The aim of the study was to understand how automatic processing interferes with attempts to attend to sensory information. The independent variable of our experiment was the three conditions, the congruent words, the incongruent words, and the colored squares, and the dependent variable was the time that it took participants to state the ink color of the list of words in each condition. We used repeated measures for the experiment in order to avoid influence of extraneous variables. The participants were 16-17 years of age from Garland High School. The participants will be timed on how long it takes them to say the color of the squares and the color of the words. The research was conducted in the Math Studies class. The participants were aged 16-17 and were students at Garland High School. The results showed that participants took the most time with the incongruent words.