Number form

This article is about the neurological phenomenon. For Unicode numbers, see Number Forms.
A number form from one of Francis Galton's (1888) subjects. Note the convolutions, and how the first 12 digits correspond to a clock face. Number forms are idiosyncratic to the person experiencing them.

A number form is a mental map of numbers, which automatically and involuntarily appears whenever someone who experiences number-forms thinks of numbers. Numbers are mapped into distinct spatial locations and the mapping may be different across individuals. Number forms were first documented and named by Sir Francis Galton in his The Visions of Sane Persons.[1] Later research has identified them as a type of synesthesia.[2][3]

  1. ^ Galton, Francis (1881). The Visions of Sane Persons.
  2. ^ Seron, X.; Pesenti, M.; Noël, M. P.; Deloche, G.; Cornet, J. A. (August 1992). "Images of numbers, or "When 98 is upper left and 6 sky blue"". Cognition. 44 (1–2): 159–196. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(92)90053-k. ISSN 0010-0277. PMID 1511585. S2CID 26687757.
  3. ^ Sagiv, Noam; Simner, Julia; Collins, James; Butterworth, Brian; Ward, Jamie (August 2006). "What is the relationship between synaesthesia and visuo-spatial number forms?". Cognition. 101 (1): 114–128. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2005.09.004. ISSN 0010-0277. PMID 16288733. S2CID 1948034.