Bouba-kiki effect
Bouba/Kiki Effect
The bouba/kiki effect or kiki/bouba effect is a phenomenon of crossmodal correspondence between sounds and shapes. It is a tendency in associating the nonsense words "bouba" with a round shape and "kiki" with a spiky shape in systematic ways. Explanations of the bouba/kiki effect are typically described through iconic cross-sensory mechanisms. These mechanisms imply that the effect arises from a process where the properties inherent in the sound form of nonsense words or their motor articulations are directly matched to the properties of the abstract shapes. The bouba/kiki effect is a form of sound symbolism and considered as a universal sound-shape correspondence.
History
The bouba/kiki effect was initially observed by Georgian psychologist Dimitri Uznadze in 1924 and was later referenced by German American psychologist Wolfgang Köhler in a 1929 experiment (Uznadze, 1924: Köhler, 1929)[1][2]. Köhler (1947) demonstrated the effect with the words "baluba" and "takete", which were subsequently changed to "maluma" and "takete." Köhler's findings indicate a strong preference for associating "maluma" with a rounded shape, while "takete" with a jagged shape [3].
In 2001, Ramachandran and Hubbard brought widespread attention to the phenomenon through their experiment using the words "bouba" and "kiki." They suggested that the bouba/kiki effect and other similar phenomena could offer important insights into the origins of language, as it implies that there might be natural constraints on the how sounds are associated with objects [4].
Research
A study in 2022 by Ćwiek et al[5] investigated the bouba/kiki effect across 25 languages. The findings revealed that this phenomenon is apparent across cultures, as 17 out of 25 languages validated the effect, showing a strong cross-linguistic pattern. Participants from various linguistic backgrounds consistently associated the word "bouba" with a round shape and "kiki" with a spiky one, this also suggests that the phenomenon is relatively independent of orthography.
The same study found that the bouba/kiki effect did not occur for Chinese, Romanian, and Turkish. It was suggested that linguistic mechanisms in these languages might override the effect, preventing certain associations. For example, in Romanian, the word for wound, bubă, sounds like "bouba", but the sharpness of pain associated with this sound may eradicate the connection to the soft round shape.
Another study by Spence and Gallace (2010) documented numerous easily demonstrable crossmodal correspondences between shapes and various sensory properties of different food and beverage items. For example, research has shown that people often associate sweet-tasting foods with organic, rounded shapes ("bouba") while bitter and sour-tasting foods with more angular shapes ("kiki"). People also tend to link carbonation, as in sparkling beverages with more angular shapes[6].
References
- ↑ Uznadze, Dimitri. "Ein experimenteller Beitrag zum Problem der psychologischen Grundlagen der Namengebung." Psychologische Forschung 5 (1924): 24-43.
- ↑ Köhler, Wolfgang (1929). Gestalt Psychology. New York: Liveright.
- ↑ Köhler, Wolfgang (1947). Gestalt Psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Liveright.
- ↑ Ramachandran, Vilayanur S., and Edward M. Hubbard. "Synaesthesia--a window into perception, thought and language." Journal of consciousness studies 8.12 (2001): 3-34.
- ↑ Ćwiek, Aleksandra, et al. "The bouba/kiki effect is robust across cultures and writing systems." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 377.1841 (2022): 20200390.
- ↑ Spence, Charles, and Alberto Gallace. "Tasting shapes and words." Food Quality and Preference 22.3 (2011): 290-295.
