Superior Olfactory Language and Cognition in Odor-Color Synaesthesia

Laura Speed and Asifa Majid have published a new paper about how automatic associations between odor and vision can be an advantage for odor cognition. Odor-color synaesthestes, people automatically see colors when they smell things, were found to be better at naming odors, at discriminating between odors, and discriminating between colors, than people without synaesthesia. Synaesthetic associations to odors are thought to strengthen odor-related concepts, enhancing odor concepts.

To read more click below:

English: http://www.ru.nl/english/news-agenda/news/vm/language-studies/linguistics/2017/better-odour-cognition-odour-colour-syneasthesia/

Dutch: http://www.ru.nl/nieuws-agenda/nieuws/vm/language-studies/taalwetenschap/2017/geur-kleur-synesthesie-speed-majid/

The publication:

Speed, L. J., & Majid, A. (2017). Superior Olfactory Language and Cognition in Odor-Color Synaesthesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Advance online publication. 

Link to full text PDF (770 kb)