{"pk":25926,"title":"The Color of Music: Synesthesia or emotion-mediated cross-modal associations?","subtitle":null,"abstract":"The cross-modal literature posits a weak-to-strong continuum of synesthesia. One extreme views cross-modal\nassociations as idiosyncratic and unique to synesthetes. The other extreme suggests that cross-modal associations follow a\ngeneral pattern across individuals, and are mediated by emotional associations. We tested these views by examining differences\nbetween music-color synesthetes and non-synesthetes in their consistency of color associations and memory for music. We find\nthat music-color associations follow the same general pattern across these groups. A two-dimensional mapping is found to mode\n(major/minor) and tempo. Slow-minor music (thought to convey sadness) is associated with blue, fast-minor with red (anger),\nfast-major with yellow (happiness), and slow-major with green (calmness). Both groups are consistent in their associations\nover time, and synesthesia has no effect on memory. We conclude that music-color synesthesia may be an extension of normal\npsychological processes that govern cross-modal associations, with individuals aligning music and color based on emotional\ncongruence.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Member Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7kc9w651","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Erin","middle_name":"","last_name":"Isbilen","name_suffix":"","institution":"Cornell University","department":""},{"first_name":"Carol","middle_name":"Lynne","last_name":"Krumhansl","name_suffix":"","institution":"Cornell University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2015-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/25926/galley/15550/download/"}]}