The shape of boubas: sound–shape correspondences in toddlers and adults
Top Cited Papers
- 12 April 2006
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Developmental Science
- Vol. 9 (3), 316-322
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00495.x
Abstract
A striking demonstration that sound–object correspondences are not completely arbitrary is that adults map nonsense words with rounded vowels (e.g. bouba) to rounded shapes and nonsense words with unrounded vowels (e.g. kiki) to angular shapes (Köhler, 1947; Ramachandran & Hubbard, 2001). Here we tested the bouba/kiki phenomenon in 2.5-year-old children and a control group of adults (n =20 per age), using four pairs of rounded versus pointed shapes and four contrasting pairs of nonsense words differing in vowel sound. Overall, participants at both ages matched words with rounded vowels to the rounder shapes and words with unrounded vowels to the pointed shapes (both ps < .0005), with no significant difference between the two ages (p > .10). Such naturally biased correspondences between sound and shape may influence the development of language.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- Implicit sound symbolism in lexical access: Evidence from an interference taskBrain and Language, 2005
- The role of motor contagion in the prediction of actionNeuropsychologia, 2005
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken wordsNature Neuroscience, 2002
- The Case for Sound SymbolismAnnual Review of Anthropology, 1999
- A developmental analysis of the polar structure of dimensionsCognitive Psychology, 1992
- Figural symbolism in Chinese ideographsJournal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1979
- The symbolic implications of vowels and of their orthographic representations in two natural languagesJournal of Psycholinguistic Research, 1977
- A Cross-Cultural Test of the Maluma—Takete PhenomenonPerception, 1975
- THE FITNESS OF NAMES TO DRAWINGS. A CROSS‐CULTURAL STUDY IN TANGANYIKABritish Journal of Psychology, 1961