Back to topics

What is it like when letters have colors?

For some people, a letter or digit comes with an automatic color association even when it is printed in black. Grapheme-color synesthesia makes an ordinary alphabet a very different experience, and gives researchers a challenge: how do you study a color only one person experiences?

3–7 min

Questions you could explore

  • What can repeated color choices reveal about an association’s consistency?
  • How is an automatic association different from a deliberately chosen metaphor?

Start reading

Ready to try your ideas aloud?

Your topic carries over. Record up to 2½ minutes, depending on your plan.

Psychology

Can an option nobody wants change what people choose?

Choosing between two offers can feel different when a third appears beside them. A decoy is less attractive than one option on the relevant features, but its presence does not reliably change every decision.

5–7 min

Can an option nobody wants change what people choose?

Psychology5–7 minChoosing between two offers can feel different when a third appears beside them. A decoy is less attractive than one option on the relevant features, but its presence does not reliably change every decision.

How can you miss something that is right in front of you?

Psychology3–5 minLooking at a scene does not mean noticing everything in it. When attention is occupied by one task, something plainly visible can go unreported, a pattern called inattentional blindness.

Psychology

Can a question change what someone remembers?

A question can ask for a memory while also suggesting what might have happened. Research on eyewitness reports separates what someone originally saw from information introduced afterward, making wording part of the evidence problem.

3–7 min

Can a question change what someone remembers?

Psychology3–7 minA question can ask for a memory while also suggesting what might have happened. Research on eyewitness reports separates what someone originally saw from information introduced afterward, making wording part of the evidence problem.

What is it like when letters have colors? | Speech Topic | speaking.app