Synesthetes: does this paragraph mess with your head?

There must be an award for that…, 4 GQ’s and no answers yet?

By the way, @Jeruba, since you seem to have knowledge of this synesthesia phenomenon, do you maybe know what it is what I ‘suffer’ from?
I want to describe to someone the Italian flag.
In my head I say Green, White, Blue I name the red band blue and then I say it out loud Green, White, Blue, errrrr, Red
Always happens when it is sudden.
When I have time I can put the correct names to the colors.

I’m not the S word, so I can’t give a real response; but I, too, noticed the GQs stacking up with no answers. And I was struck that The Magnificent Jeruba has a “common” form of synesthesia. “Common” is not a word I’d place in the same county with you, my dear. And I wonder what color the word “Jeruba” is. A GQ indeed!

I think it has so many GQ’s and no responses because it is an interesting question, but the pool of people that are able to answer it is pretty small.

I’ve sent it to DominicX. He’s the only other jelly I’m sure about.

@Jeruba Every time you read, you see letters and numbers this way?

No, I think she’s saying she’s used to seeing the letter A as red in her mind, and the number 4 as blue. In the example above the number 4 was standing in for the letter A and it messed up her colors and made her ill! Like getting hit with a big purple of confusion!

No, I don’t have sythteasiea that.

Interesting @Jeruba.

@Blackberry, yes, all letters and numbers, all words, have color inside my head, all the time: not just when I read them and write them but also when I hear them (because I “see” them as I hear them). I wrote about it here and here. I was not the only jelly to report this condition.

@Dutchess_III, yes, that’s why it messed with me. Those letters were trying to “be” red and blue at the same time—or yellow (E) and red (3), or black (S) and dark red (5). Very jarring, sort of like one of those optical illusions that wobble back and forth between concave and convex, or appear to spin.

@picante:

J – cornflower blue
E – sunny yellow
R – deep royal blue
U – bright orange
B – Crayola “blue” blue
A – red

All together, it looks like sunset over the ocean. I wish my real name were as colorful, but it looks more like dry leaves.

@rebbel, I have no idea. I haven’t heard anyone speak about that experience before. It almost sounds like a kind of dyslexia extended to colors.

I have grapheme-colour synaesthesia too and text speak TOTALLY messes with my head for exactly that reason. I have a very difficult time trying to read it at all. Incidentally your B, and J are the same colours as mine, but my E is orange, 3 and S are yellow. Another mismatch for me, the number 1 is red for me but the letter I is silver.

I remember when I was very small and learning to read I had an alphabet book that I hated because the letters were printed in the wrong colours. I just couldn’t explain WHY they were wrong.

If it’s any consolation…well, math savants, those who can tell you right off the bat what day of the week July 12, 1983, or June 15, 1492 fell on, are calling on those same abilities….I kind of wish I had it…but I’m confused enough as it is! I wonder, though, if it is something that can be cultivated? Is is something that is in all of us that we learn to ignore?

@Dutchess_III, no consolation needed! I enjoy having this extra layer of perception. Besides, it helps me see at a glance when a word is misspelled—an asset when proofreading.

I intuitively sensed that people with special number skills have something kind of similar, but I can’t imagine how to translate my experience into theirs. It’s just as alien to me as I’m sure it is to you.

I don’t think synesthesia can be cultivated any more than perfect pitch or any other special aptitude can be cultivated. And I doubt that we are all born with it, or people without it would probably be the exceptions. It’s just—you know—one of those things. I can’t cross my eyes, whistle, or identify perfumes by their fragrance. I’d be a complete dud as a wine taster.

Thank you for answering my question, @Jeruba.
That sounds like it could be something…, I will browse around a bit with this possibility.

I’ve always associated numbers and letters with colours myself. One is black, two is pale blue, three is dark orange, four bright yellow, five dark red and so forth. A is red, B is pink, C is pale yellow, almost white, D is light brown, E is birght yellow, so forth.
When I see them, hear them or think about them. But it seems so natural that the association I put to them, or that my mind does, never bothered me in any way. I could read that paragraph fine, and what I had trouble with were numbers that I wasn’t quite sure what letters they were supposed to represent. Maybe I have a mild case of it?
I’m not good at math though…in fact, I’m actually really bad at it. Was my complete worse subject in school.

I merbemer a tsop no lfuthre xelpaingin owh rou dnims rea aelisy blae it ergcozine drsow dna kame enses fo htem, veen fi ht’yere lal semesd pu.

Could you easily read that? It’s probably not related to your situation though, since it has no numbers in it, but if you see colours for letters, it might be related, if the association stops you from reading that sentence. (because apparently, just about everyone should have been able to read that fine, however my example may not have mixed the letters in the words well, I’d really have to see that other answer, but that was last year somewhere…)
But as I say, I think that’s something else, but that’s what your paragraph made me think of.

So yeah, I attribute colours to words and letters too, (and other stuff) but I didn’t have a problem with that. Then again, I’m pretty well versed in l33t speak and all. Was typing it out on my calculator at school long before I had net access, making words with numbers and reading them by flipping the calculator upside down. (boobs, hell, hellhole, other stuff)...maybe that’s why I suck at math, since I was messing around and not listening to the teacher lol.

@Symbeline, the important thing about those readable passages containing the words with scrambled letters is that the first and last letters of each word are still in the right places. The examples I’ve seen also provide plenty of context, and I think that’s a big aid to interpretation.

I am not a synesthete, so GA. If I were, it probably would. But now I wonder how you were able to spot that PR4T1C4LLY was misspelled. Being a synesthete normally gives you an advantage, but when the words have numbers in them, it seems like it would make it harder.

@Jeruba Aaaah…yeah I wasn’t sure if I got it right or not.

Deos tihs wrok betetr, and are zmibeos awmose or waht?

That definitely seems more like it, yeah. Damnit I wish I could find that question again. :/

This pertains to the same topic, @Symbeline.

@PhiNotPi, easy (and instantaneous): it didn’t have green where there should have been green. And even if the colors had been wrong (as they were where numbers appeared), there should have been two alike where there was just one. Also, color aside, the shape of the word was wrong without the two round elements. And—a word with a missing letter has the wrong aspect ratio: it’s not long enough (wide enough) for its height. Besides…I’ve been a professional in editing and publishing for more than 40 years and often had to earn my bread as a proofreader. I’ve been a good speller all my life, and professional experience has trained my eye to spot errors readily. So it’s one thing that comes easily to me, where someone else is quick at mental math or has a great mechanical sense.

It doesn’t cause any negative feeling, but when I see “amazing” written as “4M4Z1NG” the number 4’s mess me up a little. 4 is yellow to me and A is red, so it’s as if I’m trying to see two colors at once and they oscillate. Of course, I don’t see colors for all letters, only a few—“A” being one of them.

@DominicX, did you read “My response to it” in the details? I think we’re having the same reaction. And that is a new experience for me. Txtspeak doesn’t affect me the same way because it is a kind of shorthand—not a character-for-character replacement. (I dislike txtspeak for a lot of reasons, but it just doesn’t cause this same effect.)

I also have grapheme-color synesthesia, but I usually only see letters and numbers as having colors when they’re alone – most whole words don’t have colors, and most numbers longer than a single digit don’t have colors, and mixtures of letters and numbers don’t have colors – so this paragraph didn’t bother me. I love reading about other people’s synesthesia, though, so this was a very interesting post!

I don’t have synesthesia, although music does have a faint visual affect on me at times. According to this Reith Lecture one in every two hundred people have synesthesia to some extent.

@Symbeline, this?

Yeah, that’s it right there. Cool, thanks.

But I could have sworn I saw this at least a year ago…

I’ve seen it here more than once.

Hey Jeruba!
For those who don’t know I have the taste kind of synesthesia. I would definitely have to say that the effect is not as prevalent with this paragraph. I think I had to concentrate on it a bit harder, so maybe that extra effort sucked all the power from the part of my brain where the synesthesia is, haha. Although, I also suspect that I am a bit dyslexic (never been diagnosed, but it’s obvious to me when reading) so that may have something to do with it. I actually got stuck in the middle of the paragraph and had to read the same phrase over and over to make it register. Maybe it was too many things for my weak little mind to handle, so it ditched the synesthesia. :)

Go take a dramamine and don’t read that paragraph again!