Do You Have Synesthesia?

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It tastes/smells like wood to me. Very interesting actually.
It's greenish. My name is also green, because they are a bit simmilar, but a different green.
The green of your name is a bit like this: click

I don't have synethesia very strong though. It's not like I see and taste all the time and so on. It's more subcontious.

I also see forms and patterns while having sex.
Just random patterns who are getting bigger and smaller.

Last edited by Raziel on 18 Jan 2013, 2:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

No worries. I do not think many words have unpleasant associations for me. Some colors do, and I can think of a couple of words that are extremely unpleasant, but most are neutral to kind of nice.

I hope I don't get a caterpillar infestation like that tree

Since I was around 3 I've always "seen" numbers, letters and words in my head. They can be assigned colours, textures and even fonts.

I assumed everybody had this, until I asked my dad "Do you also see the number 5 as light blue - sort of denim textured?"

....the long silence said it all

I don't consider my ticker tape phenomenon to be "unfair." My photographic memory for what I read has helped me excel academically far more than my ticker tape. Really, the only advantage ticker tape has given me is excellent grammatical abilities. When I "see" spoken or thought words, the sentences are always grammatically correct.

Ah! So you'd make a good editor then. Awesome. And yea, I can see how photographic memory would be good for spelling issues.

I was astonished to find out that other people DON'T see the words in their heads. I can spell the words instead of speaking them, as in complex medical terminology, with very little effort at all. All I have to do is think of the word and BOOM, there it stands, first identified by vowel to consonant pattern. So apple (and uncle, and just a few others) looks like 01110, and very few other words do. I also store names this way, which is why Molly and Betty both get through the first filter and into the next elimination round. Thankfully, I've mnemonically associated any important people with the first letter of their name! So I know this stranger's name is shaped like 10110, and just need to remember the first letter of their name to pretty much zero in on the real name. But non-name words need no further refinement, the word stands complete!

This! How do other people know how to spell a word?

I don't think that I have it. But I can easily "see" letters in colors if I want to. I can give black a letter, and "feel->see" it. White can be a strong [any letter that I want]. Phantasy.

But I don't taste rain or colors if I don't give it a push with my imagination. But with some imagination, it's easy. But I suppose I'm far from how real synthesia people experience it.

Yes, one of the "requirements" for synesthesia is that it is involuntary. I could picture a red A in my mind, but when I read As are always yellow.

My guess is that most people do "see"/visualize a word when it comes time for them to spell it or when they're writing something. That isn't ticker-tape synesthesia. What most people do NOT do is "see" words when spoken. I'd venture that most people only "see" words when they are doing specific word-based tasks, not in everyday life. Goes back to what trollcatman said above- the involuntary and automatic nature of it.

From someone who is not a visual thinker at all- Years and years of practice. Spelling never came easy for me, and usually I think of the feel of my fingers hitting a keyboard, as most of my writing is on computers now. I never ""see" words in my head at all, I just "hear" them and struggle to write what it sounds like.. Usually I can do this, especially since elementary school, but more complicated words I am just... stumped on. No matter how many times I recall that word.. I've recently commited myself to memorizing definitely, and I still struggle with it.

Wow, that's very interesting! Completely different than my whole way of thinking. So, do you "see" any images? If asked to visualize a cat or your bedroom, could you conjure up a mental image of that? Or is it just for words/spelling? I also think it's interesting how you often resort to memorization. That's how I am with certain math/visual-spatial tasks due to my NVLD. I just am unable to understand certain concepts, so I have to resort to memorization. Luckily, though, my photographic memory made the memorization part easy, and that is one reason I have been able to take math up through calculus.

I wish these types of things were researched more. I find it utterly fascinating.

Nope. I don't "see" anything at all unless I'm dreaming. Dreams are visual, as I suppose is normal. Other than that I just have... senses? Feelings? I don't know. Like I said, I can "hear" my inner voice reading thoughts, but I don't ever see anything at all. I hated in school when they say "close your eyes and picture..." because the only thing I "saw" was a cool color-effect when I pressed on my eyes really tight. Mainly, once we were told to write/draw what we "saw" I'd just think about what they described, and draw that, or write about it, making it up as I go along. The funny thing is I love reading fiction, yet I've never been able to really "see" the plot or anything. I'm involved with it... but I don't have an idea of what the setting looks like, or the characters, or anything like that.

Very, very interesting! I can't imagine reading without visualizing. Something weird about me? I don't like when people tell you to "close your eyes" and imagine. When I'm forced to imagine something with eyes closed, I can't. I visualize much, much better with my eyes open. It's like I have two worlds going on all the time- what I'm physically looking at and what is going on in my "mind's eye" (ticker-tape words, images, recreating scenes from my special interest TV shows/movies, etc.). What's weird with me is that I'm always seeing BOTH images/scenes and words being spoken. They kind of meld together on two different background planes, and I can switch my attention to one or the other when need be.

Does anyone else with ticker-tape do this? When you hear/think/read words, do you see BOTH the words and an image/scene for the sentence?

I'd say no.

I primarily think and remember things via "association," but it's not really sensory-based.