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This thesis has been titled 'Musical Synaesthesia in Synaesthetes and its Manifestation as a Wider Phenomenon', in order to give an indication of the broadness of the subject area that it addresses. It looks at ways in which types of association normally associated with one of the five sensory channels sometimes make connections with, and produce stimulation of, any combination of the other four. Although the thesis touches on most known perspectives of this large topic, all of which are interconnected, it focuses on just two of these areas. Firstly, it deals with a condition which affects a small minority of the population known as ·synaesthesia'. 'Synaesthesia' is derived from the Greek combining syn meaning to combine and aesthises meaning perceived by the senses. This word was coined in the 1870s, probably by Fechner. People with synaesthesia experience involuntary sensations that do not exist in the external world but which are triggered by sensations which belong to another sensory channel. There are, for example, synaesthetes that who hear sounds as colours, taste textures, or hear odours. The first of these three examples is, by far, the most common type of synaesthesia and is especiaJIy relevant to this thesis since it deals with musical synaesthesia Musical synaesthesia usually involves strong and specific colours in connection with musical sounds. This introduces the thesis' second focal point, that of music. Coloured sensations in the absence of coloured stimuli are especially frequent as responses to music and musical material is used in this thesis to test such responses. It seems likely that Messiaen was a synaesthetic musician, and possible that Skryabin was also. In a more general way, the notion of music being coloured is not confined exclusively to synaesthetes. Numerous non-synaesthetic people maintain that certain keys, intervals, chords or sounds of certain musical instruments are coloured. Given that there are more non-synaesthetic people than there are synaesthetic people, it seems likely that the former group are predominantly responsible for the gravitation towards coloured music and towards musical paintings during the second half of the second half of the nineteenth century. Therefore, the term 'synaesthesia' might arguably be used to define this phenomenon with as much validity as it is used to define the neurological condition. It is from the above standpoint that we can gain a greater understanding of a certain prevalent spirit of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century's 'age of synaesthesia'. Although this standpoint is not convincing from a neurological point of view, it is relevant to the study of the internal worlds of several musicians, writers and painters. This is my justification for writing about synaesthesia as a wider phenomenon.

Synaesthesia is a variation of normal human perception. A grapheme synaesthete, for example, can experience extra sensations, such as colours when seeing letters and/or numbers. Synaesthetic ability is commonly developed at an early age, and is linked to a genetic pre-disposition; however, there is a learnt component, as one must also learn to read and write to develop grapheme synaesthesia. To explore the extent to which synaesthesia can be learnt, a training method was employed, which was first used by Colizoli, Murre and Rouw (2012). In order to learn their own coloured letters a group of non-synaesthetic individuals read colour books, which are free eBooks reproduced to have four letters consistently appear in colour. Before and after reading, the participants completed a modified Stroop-design based on Mills (1999), which was used to measure if they had learnt the two key characteristics of synaesthesia, namely an involuntary and automatic reaction to letters. Both the colour reading (n=15) and control (n=6) groups did not have a significant involuntary reaction to letters. However, it was found that the participants had significantly more automatic reactions to letters. This included the control group, who did not read in colour, which suggests that merely completing the modified Stroop test is enough to learn the automatic characteristic of grapheme synaesthesia. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Synaesthesia is a variation of normal human perception. A grapheme synaesthete, for example, can experience extra sensations, such as colours when seeing letters and/or numbers. Synaesthetic ability is commonly developed at an early age, and is linked to a genetic pre-disposition; however, there is a learnt component, as one must also learn to read and write to develop grapheme synaesthesia. To explore the extent to which synaesthesia can be learnt, a training method was employed, which was first used by Colizoli, Murre and Rouw (2012). In order to learn their own coloured letters a group of non-synaesthetic individuals read colour books, which are free eBooks reproduced to have four letters consistently appear in colour. Before and after reading, the participants completed a modified Stroop-design based on Mills (1999), which was used to measure if they had learnt the two key characteristics of synaesthesia, namely an involuntary and automatic reaction to letters. Both the colour reading (n=15) and control (n=6) groups did not have a significant involuntary reaction to letters. However, it was found that the participants had significantly more automatic reactions to letters. This included the control group, who did not read in colour, which suggests that merely completing the modified Stroop test is enough to learn the automatic characteristic of grapheme synaesthesia. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)