So to explain a little and give an example,like when a dog barks we hear ruff ruff or when an ambulance goes by we hear wee woo wee woo even though there random noises with letters or words,hopefully that makes sense,I’ll add further explanation in the comments if need be
In: Biology
I think this is subjective and depends on the individual. When I hear those sounds I don’t think at all about words that describe those sounds.
We actually don’t all hear the same sounds. Japanese has a far more restrictive syllable system than English, and Japanese onamatopoeias end up sounding wildly different from ours in many cases (such as “Nyan” instead of “meow”)
Your parent, or teacher, taught you A = “aye” and B=”bee”,… The sounds are more complex, because humans have complex vocal abilities (as do parrots, for example). All the association is pattern stored in your super-complex brain (which parrots totally do not have).
I meant to put even though they are random sounds with no letters or words*
Our brains are master categorisers. It’s literally the thing that your brain does best. It’s most of what your brain does on a conscious level.
When you see something new, for example, you brain runs that image past everything in your memory catalogue and decides what category it fits in. That’s why you can recognise a chair as a chair even if you have never seen this swanky Swedish design before. Your brain goes, “Aha! I know that general shape! It looks like all these other things in my ‘chair’ memory folder! I’m going to file it with them!”
Your brain does this on a more complex scale, too. If you touch something hot, your pain receptors in your hand activate. They send a message to your brain. Your brain then immediately catalogues that sensation, plus the input from your other senses (you can see the hot stove, you can smell the gas cooker, you can hear the fan above you going) and both your short-term and long-term memories (you were just now standing at the stove, and last time you had this sensation, you were burnt.)
It puts all these together in a fraction of a second and decides that you are feeling pain, and sends back a pain response. That is how your brain functions with *everything*.
So, when it comes to associations, like the sound an ambulance makes making us think of an ambulance, that’s just our brain doing its thing.
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