Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

When interpreting our perceptual world, information from multiple perceptual modalities is often associated. Suchcrossmodal associations can arise from innate structural connections in the brain, statistical correlations in the environment, orthrough language. In a large group of participants across a wide age range and language background, we tested crossmodalassociations between pitch and 7 dimensions in comparison modalities. We found evidence supporting the existence of all 7types of associations, but the strength of association varied by dimension. Pitch-angularity and pitch-weight judgments werethe most robust associations. In general, strength of associations increased with age, with significant associations occurring inthe oldest age group (age 19+), consistent with experiential accounts of crossmodal associations.