Enhanced Memory Ability: Insights from Synaesthesia

增强记忆能力：联觉的见解

基本信息

批准号：
ES/K006215/1
负责人：
Jamie Ward
金额：
$ 40.71万
依托单位：
University of Sussex
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2013
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2013 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK006215%2F1
关键词：
Enhanced Memory Ability Insights Synaesthesia

项目摘要

Consider the following quote from a synaesthete participant in our studies:"My coloured letters and numbers are for me wonderful memory aids and reminders. Not only are telephone numbers and dates, such as birthdays and anniversaries, made up of beautiful combinations of colours, they can also have shapes.... Units of time are visible to me too; sometimes they are three-dimensional, coloured or textured in appearance... This system helps me to plan my year". Synaesthesia is a remarkable way of perceiving the world. For some people, such as the person quoted above, letters, numbers and words may have colour (grapheme-colour synaesthesia) and sequences, such as years and months, are 'seen' as a three-dimensional figure in space (time-space synaesthesia). We have shown that synaesthesia runs in families and is present from a young age. The experiences are elicited (i.e. triggered by particular stimuli), automatic (i.e. occur involuntarily), and are often reported to have qualities of perceiving. To those who have synaesthesia it feels perfectly normal: that is, it is impossible to imagine what it is like to have, say, colourless numbers. On formal testing, however, synaesthetes have an unusual cognitive profile of strengths and weaknesses. In this research programme we will investigate enhanced memory in synaesthesia.Our general approach is to treat synaesthesia as a 'test case' to address other important research questions. For instance we consider how synaesthesia can inform general theories of memory. Importantly, not all aspects of memory are enhanced in synaesthesia and this can provide insights into how the memory system is structured. Indeed it is not trivially the case that material that elicits 'extra' sensations are better remembered: some material that does not evoke extra sensations (such as abstract figures) are also better remembered by synaesthetes. We suggest that synaesthetes have widespread changes in their perceptual systems (including but not limited to their extra experiences) and that systems supporting perception can also be engaged in memory. This approach makes contact with a much wider contemporary literature on memory including those arguments derived from animal models and patients with amnesia. In principle, studies of superior ability can be just as informative to models of memory as studies of impaired ability, even though the latter approach predominates. Moreover, cognitive psychology as a discipline has historically tended to dismiss rather than embrace individual difference (classifying it as 'noise' in the data). As such, we seek to tackle important questions relating to memory from a novel angle. An understanding of individual differences in memory functioning, derived from our research on synaesthesia, will have significant impact on other areas. For instance, one claim is that enhanced functioning in general may be protective against pathology or cognitive decline in ageing. We will test whether synaesthesia is a protective factor against age-related memory decline. Another claim is that the kind of 'low level' or 'visualising' cognitive style that we hypothesise to give rise to enhanced memory in synaesthesia may support enhanced memory in other special populations (e.g. savant memory abilities such as those sometimes found in autism). Although we do not test this directly in our main proposal, our findings will be relevant to those working in this domain and will be explored in a linked PhD.To tackle these questions we draw on a wide range of methods in cognitive psychology/neuroscience. We use both standard and bespoke tests of memory to explore which aspects of memory are enhanced. We explore how individual differences in perception (in non-synaesthetes) may relate to performance on certain memory tasks. Finally, we explore how the brain supports enhanced memory in synaesthesia using neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation methods

考虑一下我们研究中一位联觉参与者的以下引述：“对我来说，我的彩色字母和数字是极好的记忆辅助工具和提醒。电话号码和日期（例如生日和周年纪念日）不仅是由美丽的颜色组合组成的，而且也可以有形状……时间单位对我来说也是可见的；有时它们是三维的、有颜色的或有纹理的……这个系统帮助我计划我的一年”。联觉是一种感知世界的非凡方式。对于某些人来说，例如上面引用的人，字母、数字和单词可能有颜色（字素颜色联觉），并且序列（例如年和月）被“视为”空间（时空）中的三维图形。联觉）。我们已经证明，联觉在家庭中存在，并且从很小的时候就存在。这些体验是诱发的（即由特定刺激触发的）、自动的（即非自愿发生的），并且通常被报道具有感知的品质。对于那些有联觉的人来说，这感觉完全正常：也就是说，不可能想象拥有无色数字是什么样子。然而，在正式测试中，联觉者对优点和缺点有着不同寻常的认知特征。在这个研究项目中，我们将研究联觉中增强的记忆。我们的一般方法是将联觉视为解决其他重要研究问题的“测试案例”。例如，我们考虑联觉如何为一般记忆理论提供信息。重要的是，并不是记忆的所有方面都在联觉中得到增强，这可以让我们深入了解记忆系统的结构。事实上，引起“额外”感觉的材料会更好地被记住，这并不是小事：一些不会引起额外感觉的材料（例如抽象图形）也能被联觉者更好地记住。我们认为，联觉者的感知系统（包括但不限于额外的经验）发生了广泛的变化，并且支持感知的系统也可以参与记忆。这种方法与更广泛的当代记忆文献联系起来，包括来自动物模型和健忘症患者的论点。原则上，对卓越能力的研究可以与对受损能力的研究一样为记忆模型提供信息，尽管后一种方法占主导地位。此外，认知心理学作为一门学科历来倾向于忽视而不是接受个体差异（将其归类为数据中的“噪音”）。因此，我们寻求从新颖的角度解决与记忆相关的重要问题。从我们对联觉的研究中得出的对记忆功能个体差异的理解将对其他领域产生重大影响。例如，一种说法是，总体功能增强可能可以预防衰老过程中的病理或认知衰退。我们将测试联觉是否是防止与年龄相关的记忆衰退的保护因素。另一种说法是，我们假设能够增强联觉记忆的那种“低水平”或“形象化”认知风格可能支持其他特殊人群的记忆增强（例如，有时在自闭症中发现的天才记忆能力）。尽管我们没有在我们的主要提案中直接测试这一点，但我们的发现将与该领域的工作人员相关，并将在相关的博士学位中进行探索。为了解决这些问题，我们利用了认知心理学/神经科学中的各种方法。我们使用标准和定制的记忆测试来探索记忆的哪些方面得到了增强。我们探讨感知（非联觉者）的个体差异如何与某些记忆任务的表现相关。最后，我们探讨大脑如何使用神经影像学和非侵入性脑刺激方法来支持增强联觉记忆