title: Implicit phonetic symbolism in voicing of consonants and visual lightness using Garner's speeded classification task.
abstract: The present study examines implicit phonetic symbolism which posits that arbitrary linguistic sound is related to certain aspects of characteristics of other modalities, such as color, touch, or emotion. In consonant discrimination and lightness discrimination using Garner's speeded classification paradigm, spoken sounds (voiced/voiceless consonants) and lightness of visual stimuli (black/white squares) were systematically varied to assess cross-modal interactions. Congruent audio-visual pairs (voiced consonants and black, and between voiceless consonants and white) facilitated consonant discrimination. In lightness discrimination, no congruent facilitation or congruence effect was observed. These results indicated that cross-modal interactions in implicit phonetic symbolism can be found in correlations between linguistic spoken sounds and visual lightness.
authors.affiliation: Kobe University, Department of Humanities, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe, Hyogo, 657-8501 Japan. shirata@lit.kobe-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Sachiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ukita
authors.forename: Shinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kita
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010699:Phonation; D010700:Phonetics; D011930:Reaction Time; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013561:Symbolism; D055815:Young Adult