The size-brightness correspondence:evidence for crosstalk among aligned conceptual feature dimensions

The same core set of cross-sensory correspondences connecting stimulus features across different sensory channels are observed regardless of the modality of the stimulus with which the correspondences are probed. This observation suggests that correspondences involve modality-independent representations of aligned conceptual feature dimensions, and predicts a size-brightness correspondence, in which smaller is aligned with brighter. This suggestion accommodates cross-sensory congruity effects where contrasting feature values are specified verbally rather than perceptually (e.g., where the words WHITE and BLACK interact with the classification of high and low pitch sounds). Experiment 1 brings these two issues together in assessing a conceptual basis for correspondences. The names of bright/white and dark/black substances were presented in a speeded brightness classification task in which the two alternative response keys differed in size. A size-brightness congruity effect was confirmed, with substance names classified more quickly when the relative size of the response key needing to be pressed was congruent with the brightness of the named substance (e.g., when yoghurt was classified as a bright substance by pressing the smaller of two keys). Experiment 2 assesses the proposed conceptual basis for this congruity effect by requiring the same named substances to be classified according to their edibility (with all of the bright/dark substances having been selected for their edibility/inedibility, respectively). The predicted absence of a size-brightness congruity effect, along with other aspects of the results, supports the proposed conceptual basis for correspondences and speaks against accounts in which modality-specific perceptuomotor representations are entirely responsible for correspondence-induced congruity effects

Summation of visual attributes in auditory‐visual crossmodal

Crossmodal correspondences are a feature of human perception in which two or more sensory dimensions are linked together; for example, high‐pitched noises may be more readily linked with small objects than large objects. However, no study yet has systematically examined the interaction between different visual‐auditory crossmodal correspondences. We investigated how the visual dimensions of luminance, saturation, size and vertical position can influence decisions when matching particular visual stimuli with high‐pitched or low‐pitched auditory stimuli. For multi‐dimensional stimuli, we found a general pattern of summation of individual crossmodal correspondences, with some exceptions that may be explained by Garner interference. These findings have applications for the design of sensory substitution systems, which convert information from one sensory modality to another

Cross-sensory correspondences and crosstalk between dimensions of connotative meaning: Visual angularity is hard, high-pitched, and bright.

Higher-pitched sounds are judged to be, among other things, sharper, harder, and brighter than lower-pitched sounds. Following Karwoski, Odbert, and Osgood (1942), such cross-sensory correspondences are proposed to have a semantic basis, reflecting extensive bi-directional cross-activation among dimensions of connotative meaning. On this basis, the same core set of correspondences should emerge whichever sensory feature is used to probe it. More angular (sharper) shapes should, for example, be higher-pitched and have the same cross-sensory features as higher-pitched sounds. Experiments 1 – 3 employed a speeded classification task designed to reveal cross-sensory correspondences having a semantic basis. With words as to-be-classified stimuli, and with shapes varying in angularity as concurrent incidental stimuli, congruity effects between angularity and each of hardness, pitch, and brightness, were confirmed. Correspondences with a semantic basis need not be cross-modality in nature. Experiment 4 confirmed this by reproducing the brightness-angularity congruity effect when contrasting values for both features were encoded non-verbally within the visual modality. The varying nature and origins of cross-sensory correspondences, and the basis on which they induce congruity effects in speeded classification, are explored

Size-brightness correspondence:crosstalk and congruity among dimensions of connotative meaning

Following Karwoski, Odbert, and Osgood (Journal of General Psychology 26:199–222, 1942), in the present article, cross-sensory correspondences are proposed to reflect the alignment of, and extensive bidirectional cross-activation among, dimensions of connotative meaning. The size–brightness correspondence predicted on this basis (in which smaller is aligned with brighter) was confirmed in two ways. First, when participants explored three wooden balls of different size by touch alone and indicated how bright they thought each of them was, the smaller ball was judged to be brighter than the bigger ball. Second, when these two balls served as response keys in a speeded brightness-classification task, participants were quicker and more likely to be correct when confirming that a stimulus was bright (dark) when this required them to press the smaller (bigger) key, than when it required them to press the bigger (smaller) key. This congruity effect originated from interactions embedded in the later stages of information processing concerned with stimulus classification and response selection. These results, together with the observation that the cross-sensory features associated with smallness are the same as those associated with higher pitch sounds (i.e., both attributes are more active, brighter, faster, lighter in weight, quieter, sharper, and weaker than their opposites), support the suggestion that there exists a core set of cross-sensory correspondences that emerges whichever stimulus feature is used to probe it