The Dual Structure of Consciousness: Empirical Exploration of Archetypal Polarities through Intuitive and Sensory Categorization

Theoretical background Previous research on the kiki–buba effect suggests the existence of non-arbitrary associations between perceptual features and abstract categories. The present study is grounded in the assumption that human cognition operates using implicit, pre-reflective structural oppositions, which manifest consistently across different stimulus modalities (language/meaning, sound, color). The study tests whether such a fundamental cognitive opposition is reflected in systematic and consensual classifications of stimuli along a kiki–buba dimension. All stimuli (words, sounds, colors) and their predicted kiki/buba classifications will be specified a priori and listed explicitly prior to data collection. No post hoc reclassification will be performed. Hypotheses H1: Agreement for words (lexical stimuli) Participants will show above-chance intersubjective agreement in classifying words as more kiki or more buba. H1a: Directionality of word classifications The direction of classifications (kiki vs. buba) will be consistent with predictions derived from intuitive and symbolic models of cognition, including but not limited to archetypal psychology and cross-modal perception research. Each word included in the study is assigned an a priori predicted classification as either kiki or buba. Participant responses will be compared against these predictions. All lexical stimuli are presented in Polish. Below, all words predicted as kiki are listed first, followed by all words predicted as buba. KIKI: dzień, świadomość, pobudzenie, wiek średni/dorosłość, intuicja, myślenie, życie, praca, aktywność, ogień, powietrze, prawo, góra, ekstrawersja, porządek, zeus, jednostka/indywiduum, samotność, miasto, nieparzystość, radość, napięcie, nienawiść, złoto, zimno, strach, przyśpieszone bicie serca, lekkość, blisko, hałas, twardość, szybkość, nowy, sztuczny/przetworzony, ja, perfekcja, nauka, biurokracja, dobro, obecnośc/istnienie czegoś, prawda, wieża, linia pionowa/wertykalna, przenikliwy chłód, upał/gorąc, obcy, sztylet, piekło, dzieciństwo BUBA: noc, nieświadomość, sen, niemowlę, starość, emocje, postrzeganie przez zmysły, śmierć, odpoczynek, pasywność, woda, ziemia, lewo, dół, introwersja, chaos, afrodyta, tłum/grupa, wspólnota, natura, parzystość, smutek, spokój, obojętność/neutralność, miłość, przyjaźń, srebro, ciepło, obrzydzenie, regenarcja, ciężkość, daleko, cisza, miękkość, powolność, stary, naturalny, nie-ja, kompletność, magia, zło, brak/nicość, fałsz, studnia, linia pozioma/horyzontalna, grobowiec, naczynie, bezpieczeństwo, rodzina, niebo/raj H2: Agreement for sounds (auditory stimuli) Participants will show above-chance intersubjective agreement in classifying sounds as more kiki or more buba. H2a: Acoustic features of kiki sounds Sounds classified as kiki will be characterized by: higher fundamental frequency, brighter timbre, faster attack, greater harmonic clarity, major-mode tonal characteristics. Conversely, sounds classified as buba are expected to exhibit lower pitch, darker timbre, slower attack, minor-mode tonal characteristics and less harmonic brightness. H3: Agreement for colors (visual stimuli) Participants will show above-chance intersubjective agreement in classifying colors as more kiki or more buba. H3a: Color properties associated with kiki Colors classified as kiki will tend to be: higher in brightness, higher in saturation, warmer in tone (reds and yellows) visually sharper or more contrastive. Colors classified as buba are expected to be darker, less saturated, cooler in tone (blues and greens) and visually softer. The colors to be used are listed below: RGB(120, 60, 60) RGB(150, 0, 0) RGB(180, 120, 120) RGB(220, 0, 0) RGB(240, 180, 180) RGB(255, 80, 80) RGB(130, 130, 90) RGB(160, 160, 0) RGB(200, 200, 140) RGB(230, 230, 0) RGB(255, 255, 200) RGB(255, 255, 80) RGB(70, 110, 70) RGB(0, 130, 0) RGB(130, 180, 130) RGB(0, 180, 0) RGB(190, 240, 190) RGB(80, 255, 80) RGB(60, 80, 120) RGB(0, 0, 150) RGB(120, 150, 200) RGB(0, 0, 220) RGB(180, 210, 255) RGB(80, 120, 255) Statistical criteria Agreement will be assessed using appropriate measures of intersubjective consistency (e.g. proportion agreement, intraclass correlation, or equivalent non-parametric tests), and compared against chance-level responding. A mean classification rate not significantly different from chance (50:50) will be interpreted as lack of evidence for a shared underlying cognitive structure for the tested stimuli. Interpretation framework The study is designed to test the presence or absence of a fundamental, shared cognitive opposition underlying intuitive classifications. Interpretation of the psychological or symbolic meaning of such an opposition, if observed, will be addressed in the discussion section and will not be used to generate post hoc hypotheses.