pseudochromesthesia

Noun

pseudo-chromesthesia (plural pseudo-chromesthesias)

1. (obsolete, rare) A type of synesthesia when sounds trigger involuntary, subjective sensations of color; during which a person might see colors when they hear music, specific pitches, words, or everyday noises (e.g. a "blue" sound or a "red" voice); a mental association rather than a true, external visual perception.
   • The helpfulness of pseudo-chromesthesia is less obvious, yet it is reported in about one-fourth our cases. ' ' Colors do not look right," one subject writes, " unless a word is spelled right. For instance, I spelled permanent, the other day, with two a’s, and it did not look pale enough." Another...1893, Calkins, Mary Whiton, A Statistical Study of Pseudo-Chromesthesia and of Mental-Forms, The American Journal of Psychology