The influence of meaning on attention and memory

字母和数字既有形式也有意义。A7有可描述的形式，但也有语义属性。它有特定的发音(七)、大小(&gt；6)以及其他的含义(例如，“幸运7”)。一些有字形颜色通感的人有不寻常的语义联想，既与数字、字母联系在一起，也与某些单词联系在一起。例如，7不仅代表幸运，而且是黄色的。对于“时空联想者”，指时间单位的单词(例如，七月)与空间位置(例如，七月正好在八月的上方和右边)相关联。我的研究计划试图证明，这些不同寻常的意义方面可以影响数字或单词被注意和记忆的方式。例如，在电脑屏幕上闪现7月这个词，会自动将通感者的注意力引导到他们的右侧(如果对他们来说，7月就是7月的话)。像这样的通感者也会使用他们的空间日历来记忆他们生活中的日期和事件。研究通感提供了一个难得的机会来研究数字和月份等概念的含义如何影响我们处理和记忆这些概念的方式。这里的目标不是理解通感本身，而是将通感作为回答一般问题的场所，这些问题与我们世界中与物体相关的意义如何影响它们被注意和记忆的方式有关。

Letters and digits have both form and meaning.  A 7 has a describable form but also semantic attributes.  It has a specific pronunciation ("seven"), and magnitude (> 6) as well as other connotations (e.g.,"lucky 7").  Persons with grapheme-colour synaesthesia have unusual semantic associations linked to both digits and letters and certain words.  For example a 7 is not only lucky, but is also yellow.  For "Time-Space synaesthetes", words that refer to time units (e.g., July) are associated with spatial locations (e.g., July is just above and to the right of August). My research program seeks to show that these unusual aspects of meaning can influence the manner in which digits or words are attended to and remembered. For example flashing the word July on a computer screen automatically directs a synaesthete's attention to their right (if that is where July resides for them).  Synaesthetes like this also use their spatial calendars to remember dates and events in their lives.  Studying synaesthesia offers a rare opportunity to study how the meaning of concepts like digits, and months can influence how we attend and remember these concepts.The goal  here is not to understand synaesthesia per se, but rather to use synaesthesia as a venue for answering general questions about how the meaning associated with objects in our world can influence how they are attended and remembered.