Our research interests are many and varied. Read on to find out what we're up to.
Synaesthesia and Memory
One aspect of our research is concerned with synaesthesia and its influence on learning and memory. Previous research has shown that under certain conditions synaesthetic experiences lead to a memory performance advantage. However, to date not much is known about the specific affected memory systems and processes or the underlying mechanisms by which synaesthesia influences memory performance. It is therefore our aim to further this research which on a more general level shapes a new understanding of the interaction between individual differences in perception and memory processes.
Diagnosing Synaesthesia
Another important aspect of our research is concerned with the diagnosis of synaesthesia. Depending on the classification method and the criterion applied the outcome for an individual person could be quite different as to whether the person is classified as a genuine synaesthete or a non-synaesthete. For instance, with a very restrictive criterion only the most “synaesthetic” individuals would be classified as genuine synaesthetes and people with weaker synaesthetic experiences would be classified as non-synaesthetes. In science such misclassification is very likely to affect the findings of a study. For instance, if a scientist compares the memory performance of a group of synaesthetes and a group of non-synaesthetes, and due to misclassification there were also synaesthetes in the group of non-synaesthetes, the scientist might miss the opportunity to discover important differences. It is therefore our aim to develop and provide methods which optimise for the identification of genuine synaesthetes and at the same time for the identification of true non-synaesthetes.
Sensory Substitution
Sensory substitution is a technique whereby information in one sense (usually vision) is "re-routed" through another sense. Sensory Substitution Devices (SSDs) may be used by visually impaired people to regain some semblance of vision. Our research focuses on visual-to-auditory sensory substitution, in which a visual signal is converted to a sound, which the brain can be trained to convert back into vision. We are primarily investigating the practical implementations and application. Additionally, we are exploring the relationship between sensory substitution and synaesthesia.
Touch-to-Vision Synaesthesia
Recent research has shown that regions once thought to be ‘visual-only’ in the brain can actually be recruited during touch-tasks to enhance tactile discrimination performance. If this is true of non-synaesthetes, then what are the perceptual implications for when these senses are explicitly linked in synaesthesia? Our aim is to examine if those with visual experiences from touch, temperature or pain have different tactile-visual information processing than those without synaesthesia using a variety of tactile tasks. This will allow us to examine how variations in the tactile-visual system relate to producing any tactile discrimination changes and allow us to map how variations in touch produce variations in the visual experiences of synaesthetes. Outside of our behavioural testing, we are also interested in establishing the varieties of touch/temperature/pain – vision synaesthesia there are, so we have created a variety of 10 minute long questionnaires to be filled out by anyone who believes they might have one of these types.
Touch-Vision Questionnaire
https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/sussex/touchvisionsyn
Temperature-Vision Questionnaire
https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/sussex/temperaturevisionsyn
Pain-Vision Questionnaire
https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/sussex/painvisionsyn