Synaesthesia is linked to more vivid and detailed content of autobiographical and less fading of childhood memories

Article (Accepted Version)

Chin, Taylor and Ward, Jamie (2018) Synaesthesia is linked to more vivid and detailed content of autobiographical memories and less fading of childhood memories. , 26 (6). pp. 844-851. ISSN 0965-8211

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http://sro.sussex.ac.uk 1

Synaesthesia is linked to More Vivid and Detailed Content of

Autobiographical Memories and Less Fading of Childhood Memories

Taylor Chin1 and Jamie Ward2

1 Princeton University, USA

2 School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, U.K.

Manuscript Submitted to: Memory

Running head: in synaesthesia

Address correspondence to :-

Prof. Jamie Ward,

School of Psychology,

University of Sussex,

Falmer, Brighton,

BN1 9QH, U.K.

Tel. : +44 (0)1273 876598

Fax. : +44 (0)1273 678058

E-mail : [email protected]

2

People with synaesthesia have enhanced memory on a wide range of laboratory tests of , but very little is known about their real-world memory. This study used a standard measure of autobiographical remembering (the Autobiographical Memory

Questionnaire, AMQ) considering four constructs (Recollection, Belief, Impact and Rehearsal) and two time periods (recent memories from adulthood, remote memories from childhood).

Synaesthetes reported more Recollection (e.g. sensory detail) and Belief (e.g. confidence) which interacted with time, such that remote memories are reported to be comparatively better preserved in synaesthetes. This cannot be explained by synaesthetes recalling more salient episodes (the groups did not differ in Impact). It suggests instead that childhood memories have a special status in synaesthesia that reflects the different neurodevelopmental trajectory of this group. With regards to Rehearsal, controls tended to report that more recent memories tend to resurface (i.e. adulthood > childhood), but the synaesthetes showed the opposite dissociation (i.e. childhood > adulthood).

Keywords: memory; autobiographical; synaesthesia/synesthesia; recollection; metacognition.

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INTRODUCTION

People with synaesthesia have automatic, percept-like experiences triggered by stimuli that don’t normally elicit these experiences: for instance, words may have tastes, or numbers may be coloured. Synaesthesia can be reliably detected from childhood, around 6 years

(Simner & Bain, 2013), although it may have it