Coloured Letters and Numbers (CLaN): a reliable factor-analysis based synaesthesia questionnaire.
Synaesthesia is a heterogeneous phenomenon, even when considering one particular sub-type. The purpose of this study was to design a reliable and valid questionnaire for grapheme-colour synaesthesia that captures this heterogeneity. By the means of a large sample of 628 synaesthetes and a factor analysis, we created the Coloured Letters and Numbers (CLaN) questionnaire with 16 items loading on 4 different factors (i.e., localisation, automaticity/attention, deliberate use, and longitudinal changes). These factors were externally validated with tests which are widely used in the field of synaesthesia research. The questionnaire showed good test-retest reliability and construct validity (i.e., internally and externally). Our findings are discussed in the light of current theories and new ideas in synaesthesia research. More generally, the questionnaire is a useful tool which can be widely used in synaesthesia research to reveal the influence of individual differences on various performance measures and will be useful in generating new hypotheses.
School of Psychology and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. Electronic address: nicolas.rothen@gmail.com.
Nicolas
N
Rothen
Elias
E
Tsakanikos
Beat
B
Meier
Jamie
J
Ward
D000328:Adult; D003118:Color Perception; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057190:Stroop Test; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D000080311:Synesthesia
Colour; Consistency; Factor analysis; Questionnaire; Stroop; Synaesthesia