Children and adults consistently match some words (e.g., kiki) to jagged shapes and other words (e.g., bouba) to rounded shapes, providing evidence for non-arbitrary sound-shape mapping. In this study, we investigated the influence of vowels on sound-shape matching in toddlers, using four contrasting pairs of nonsense words differing in vowel sound (/i/ as in feet vs. /o/ as in boat) and four r...

Many languages have a word class whose speech sounds are linked to sensory experiences (sound symbolism). Here we investigated sound symbolism in taste. Specifically, we performed psychological experiments to study the relationship between phonemes of Japanese sound symbolic words and emotional evaluations of objects in taste. In the experiment, when participants drank something, they were aske...

Sustainable water management is one of the global grand challenges of our time. Tackling this challenge through corrective actions would require the participation of the general public, a public with sound awareness of the challenge and commitment. One such awareness raising intervention could be through the use of water symbolism and proverbs, targeted to particular society. Water has the diff...

Synesthesia is a condition in which perceptual or cognitive stimuli (e.g., a written letter) trigger atypical additional percepts (e.g., the color yellow). Although these cross-modal pairings appear idiosyncratic in that they superficially differ from synesthete to synesthete, underlying patterns do exist and these can, in some circumstances, reflect the cross-modal intuitions of nonsynesthetes...

In their recent article, Sweeny, Guzman-Martinez, Ortega, Grabowecky, and Suzuki (2012) demonstrate that heard speech sounds modulate the perceived shape of briefly presented visual stimuli. Ovals, whose aspect ratio (relating width to height) varied on a trial-by-trial basis, were rated as looking wider when a /woo/ sound was presented, and as taller when a /wee/ sound was presented instead. O...