The paper I chose is called, Synaesthesia- A Window into Perception, Thought and Language by V. Throughout the paper Ramachandran and Hubbard discuss many things including perception and thought and how it related to synaesthesia. Both authors also talk about the experiments in which they have conducted which unquestionably prove that synaesthesis is a genuine perceptual phenomenon, and not an effect based on memory association from childhood. The two also talked about synaesthesia with respect to language and how it evolved. For the sake of this class I chose to focus/elaborate on how Ramachandran and Hubbard explain their thought on Synaesthesia and its relation to the evolution of Language.
One of the oldest puzzles known to mankind is the evolution of language, and how it has evolved. Both Ramachandran and Hubbard believe that language origins come from synaesthesia. The two attempt to explain and give valid arguments to support this theory, but unfortunately I have found some flaws within their arguments. Although, before I get into explaining the article and the views of the two authors, I must first give some background information on synaesthesia itself. .
Synaesthesia is a condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. The word Synesthesia derives from two Greek words, syn (together) and aesthesis (perception). Therefore, in literal terms synesthesia means "joined perception". Synesthesia can involve any of the senses as well as manifest itself in many different ways. There is an abundance amount of different types of synaesthesia, but a few common ones consist of the following:.
- Grapheme- colour synesthesia: These types of synesthetes perceive symbols, I.E. letters and numbers in specific/different colours. For example, an individual may always see the letter "A" as red or the number "7" as the colour green.
