CREATIVITY, SYNESTHESIA, AND PHYSIOGNOMIC PERCEPTION

Evidence suggests that creative individuals have access to primary pro cess modes of thought. Because such thinking is associative, it is bel ieved to enhance the likelihood of a creative insight. Synesthesia and physiognomic perception are aspects of primary process thinking. Syne sthesia involves a unity between or among different sensory modalities . Physiognomic perception involves a fusion of affect and perception. We investigated the relation between creativity and synesthetic tenden cies and physiognomic perception. The Remote Associates Test (S. A. Me dnick & M. P. Mednick, 1967) was used to measure creative potential. S imilarity judgments were made between auditory stimuli (pure tones and pure vowel sounds) and colors to measure synesthetic-like phenomena. Colors were rated using adjectives with emotional or evaluative connot ations to measure physiognomic perception. More creative participants differed significantly from less creative participants on their rating s, with more creative participants exhibiting stronger associations be tween colors and pure tones, vowels, and emotional terms.