FIGURE 1.

The conceptual-mediation model of synesthesia. (A) Schematic of the processes involved in the elicitation of lexically induced synesthetic color experience. In this information processing stream, attention to the inducer letter “A” serves as the gatekeeper for subsequent analyses. The perceptual system then analyses how lines are conjoined, deriving the visual word form of “A.” The visual representation of “A” subsequently activates the core lexical concept of “A,” which in turn excites various associated nodes of conceptual properties in a semantic network, including its red synesthetic color; (B) a schematic illustration of the semantic network of the concept of banana and its related conceptual features; (C) the salience/vividness of synesthetic color may depend on the strength or directness of the link between the lexical presentation of “A” and its synesthetically red color.