Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a neurological trait that causes lifelong colour associations for letter and numbers. Synaesthesia studies have demonstrated differences between synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes in ways that extend beyond synaesthesia itself (e.g., differences in their cognition, personality, and creativity). This research has focused almost exclusively on adult synaesthetes, and little is known about the profiles of synaesthetic children. By and large, findings suggest advantages for synaesthetes (e.g., Chun & Hupé, 2016; Havlik, Carmichael, & Simner, 2015; Rothen, Meier, & Ward, 2012; Rouw & Scholte, 2016; Simner & Bain, 2018) although differences in mathematical ability are unclear: some research indicates advantages (e.g., Green & Goswami, 2008) whilst others suggest difficulties (e.g., Rich et al., 2005). In the current study, we tested numerical cognition in a large group of children with grapheme-colour synaesthesia. Synaesthetes with coloured numbers showed advantages over their peers in their sense of numerosity, but not in their curriculum mathematics ability. We discuss how our findings speak to models for synaesthesia, to methodologies for assessing number cognition (e.g., dot numerosity tasks), and to the wider educational practice of using coloured number-tools in schools (e.g., Numicon; Oxford University Press, 2018).

中文翻译：

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儿童联觉中的算术技巧：字素色联觉的证据。

字素色联觉是一种神经学特征，会引起字母和数字的终身颜色关联。联觉研究已经证明了联觉麻醉药和非联觉麻醉药之间的差异超出了联觉本身本身的范围（例如，其认知，个性和创造力方面的差异）。这项研究几乎完全集中于成人的联觉，而对联觉儿童的概况知之甚少。总体而言，研究结果表明联觉麻醉剂具有优势（例如，Chun＆Hupé，2016; Havlik，Carmichael，＆Simner，2015; Rothen，Meier，＆Ward，2012; Rouw＆Scholte，2016; Simner＆Bain，2018），尽管存在差异数学能力尚不清楚：有些研究表明了优势（例如，Green＆Goswami，2008年），而另一些研究则表明了困难（例如，Rich等人，2005年）。在当前的研究中，我们测试了一组字素色联觉儿童的数字认知能力。有色数字的通感在数字意识上比同龄人显示出优势，但在课程数学能力上却没有。我们讨论了我们的发现如何与联觉模型，评估数字认知的方法（例如点数字运算）以及在学校中使用有色数字工具的更广泛的教育实践（例如Numicon;牛津大学出版社，2018年）有关。