{"title":"The Meanings of Synesthetic Metaphors Closely Align With Crossmodal Correspondences","authors":"Mai Mori, Kimi Akita","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70209","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70209","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Synesthetic metaphors are expressions in which the meaning of a word is transferred from one sense to another (e.g., <i>a bright sound</i>). They have often been discussed in relation to crossmodal correspondences, psychological phenomena where systematic associations are perceived between different senses (e.g., brightness and pitch). However, the relationship between these two phenomena has largely been treated as an assumption, with limited empirical examination. The present study investigated the extent to which synesthetic metaphors and crossmodal correspondences are related to each other. Specifically, through experiments using the semantic differential technique, it examined whether, for example, the sound represented by <i>a sweet sound</i> corresponds to the sound crossmodally associated with <i>a sweet taste</i>. It was found that the meanings of synesthetic metaphors were generally consistent with crossmodal correspondences; however, those of synesthetic metaphors that were acceptable or conventional (e.g., <i>a sour smell</i>) diverged from crossmodal correspondences (e.g., a smell associated with <i>a sour taste</i>). Furthermore, they were found to agree more closely with crossmodal correspondences on emotionally loaded scales, such as bad–good and dirty–clean, than on relatively emotion-neutral scales, such as low-pitched–high-pitched. These findings indicate that the meanings of synesthetic metaphors, which generally align closely with crossmodal correspondences, may diverge from them when conventionalized and suggest that the two phenomena are emotionally mediated.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13128152/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Modality Matters: Intact and Enhanced Memory Skills in Children From High-Stress Environments","authors":"Gabriele Paone, Arran J. Davis, Emma Cohen","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70214","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70214","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although adverse ontogenetic environments are associated with potential impairments in children's memory, recent research suggests that individuals can develop specialized skills to navigate such settings. We conducted a study on short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) among 357 children (176 females, <i>M<sub>age</sub></i> = 8.23 years, <i>SD<sub>age</sub></i> = 1.49 years) from two environments in Naples (Italy): Scampia, a neighborhood characterized by chronic socioeconomic hardship, and Pozzuoli, a comparatively lower-stress area. In Part 1, which used conventional abstract stimuli, Scampia children performed similarly to the Pozzuoli control group. In Part 2, which used social stimuli, Scampia children outperformed Pozzuoli peers in both STM and WM. These findings highlight the complexity of memory development, showing that children from high-stress environments can exhibit intact or even enhanced skills that are functionally relevant to the challenges of their surroundings.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13128153/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ye Li, Christine S.-P. Yu, Michael K. McBeath, Viridiana L. Benitez
{"title":"U.S. English-Speaking Children and Adults Exhibit a “Gleam-Glum” Sound Symbolic Effect Linking Phonemic Vowel Sounds With Emotional Valence","authors":"Ye Li, Christine S.-P. Yu, Michael K. McBeath, Viridiana L. Benitez","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70215","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70215","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We tested a recently-found sound symbolic effect, the <i>gleam-glum effect</i>, in which words with the [i]-phoneme (like “<i>gleam</i>”) are perceived as emotionally more positive than matched words with the [Ʌ]-phoneme (like “<i>glum</i>”). We extend prior work and verify this effect using a novel online pseudoword-to-scene matching task, testing U.S. English-speaking adults (<i>n</i> = 105) and 5- to 7-year-old children (<i>n</i> = 52). Participants heard pairs of matched [i]- versus [Ʌ]-monosyllabic pseudowords (e.g., “<i>zeem</i>” versus “<i>zum</i>”) and assigned them to cartoon scenes exhibiting contrasting emotional valence (positive versus negative). These results provide the first empirical evidence that the gleam-glum effect is robust across both young children and adults, with the effect magnitude somewhat less in children of this age compared to adults. Our findings confirm that the gleam-glum effect is already strong at an early age and holds promise of being an important mechanism for language comprehension, language use, and language learning.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13128154/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Portia Wang, Monique Santoso, Eugy Han, Jeremy N. Bailenson
{"title":"Synchrony and Task Engagement in Virtual Reality: Temporal Dynamics, Predictors, and Psychological Outcomes of Collaborative Behaviors","authors":"Portia Wang, Monique Santoso, Eugy Han, Jeremy N. Bailenson","doi":"10.1111/cogs.70211","DOIUrl":"10.1111/cogs.70211","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Collaborative behaviors provide useful signals for understanding how minds align through perception and actions. Virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool for studying these behaviors, as it enables fine-grained measurements of coordination in virtual social settings. In this work, we investigate collaborative behaviors in a large-scale classroom VR dataset of space-building activities (<i>N</i> = 146), focusing on dyadic synchrony and individual task engagement during the collaborative group activity. An analysis of collaborative behaviors over time revealed a U-shaped pattern in head and hand synchrony, with a turning point occurring approximately two-thirds into the activity. We found that the likelihood of dyads temporally aligning their object editing behaviors (i.e., nonzero vs. zero synchrony scores) and whether they actively created, edited, or deleted objects all followed an inverted-U shape over time, peaking around midway through the activity. We further analyzed synchrony and task engagement both as possible indicators of individual dispositions (i.e., previous extended reality [XR] and design experiences) and social context (i.e., group size), and also as behavioral signals for how individuals perceive their group members and collaborative outcomes. The findings revealed that collaborative behaviors such as object edit synchrony are shaped by previous XR experience, group size negatively predicted the frequency of object creation, and that the frequency of object deletion is positively associated with perception of group closeness. Taken together, this work advances the understanding of collaborative behavior by modeling its temporal dynamics, identifying predictors and psychological outcomes, thereby demonstrating how VR enables large-scale examination of its cognitive underpinnings.</p>","PeriodicalId":48349,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Science","volume":"50 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}