The influence of meaning on attention and memory

字母和数字既有形式又有意义。 7有一个可描述的形式，但也有语义属性。 它有一个特定的发音（“七”），和大小（> 6）以及其他内涵（例如，“幸运7”）。 具有字素-颜色联觉的人对数字、字母和某些单词都有不同寻常的语义联想。 例如，7不仅是幸运的，而且是黄色的。 对于“时空联觉者”，指时间单位的词语（例如，七月）与空间位置（例如，七月就在八月的右上方）。我的研究计划旨在表明，这些意义的不寻常方面可以影响数字或单词被注意和记住的方式。例如，在电脑屏幕上闪现“七月”这个词会自动将联觉者的注意力引导到他们的右边（如果那是他们的七月所在地）。 像这样的联觉者也使用他们的空间日历来记住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意义如何影响我们对这些概念的关注和记忆，我们的目标不是理解通感本身，而是利用通感来回答一些普遍的问题，即与我们世界中的物体相关的意义如何影响我们对它们的关注和记忆。

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.