This review brings together historical and empirical strands of research on colour-shape correspondences. Historical accounts usually start with Wassily Kandinsky’s universal visual language of art and design, which made extensive use of fundamental colours and forms. Whilst this is an example of an intramodal correspondence, modern empirical work in this area has typically been grounded in the field of crossmodal correspondences: That is, bi-directional, non-arbitrary mappings between the attributes (or dimensions) of two sensory modalities, which can give rise to congruency effects in performance and are usually considered to match one another phenomenologically. Such crossmodal mappings have been explored by psychologists for more than a century now and, in recent years, the topic has blossomed into a full-blown field of research. We examine the various strands of this research – the historical and modern empirical work – in turn, in order to provide an exhaustive review of the colour-shape correspondence research that has been published to date. Whilst the specific colour-shape correspondences Kandinsky suggested may not be reproducible in their exact configuration, the artist was indeed, ahead of his time in understanding that our senses can be inextricably linked.

Cognitive neuroscience research revealing the 1) phenomenology, 2) physiology, 3) representation, and 4) function of pain is examined to evaluate whether we can consider pain as a separate sensory modality. The discussion focuses on the wealth of new research and theories that has come out in the period from 2000-2013 since it allows us to fruitfully re-evaluate pain’s modality status. The four areas are chosen to reflect traditional criteria used to individuate the senses in philosophy (Macpherson, 2011). The exquisitely specialised nature of the nociceptive system is empasized, whilst the strong integrated links with other sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, and vision is discussed. The integrated and convergent processing is evaluated in light of the functions pain serves, reminiscent of Gibson’s (1966) ecological approach. Pain is found amenable to scientific examination and capable of being categorised as a sensory modality in its own right. Suggestions for how to think about sensory modalities, perceptual systems, and their functions are considered.

A qualitative and quantitative review of the relationship between the dark triad and emotional intelligence was conducted. The qualitative review introduces emotional intelligence, Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and Narcissism. The affective and interpersonal nature of the dark triad is elucidated by examining its callous and emotionally manipulative nature. In the quantitative review, 26 studies, predominately looking at the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and the dark triad, were meta-analysed. Significant correlations of -0.30, -0.35, and 0.17 between trait emotional intelligence and Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and Narcissism, respectively, were found. Findings in relation to ability emotional intelligence, offender vs. non-offenders, and construct sub-factors are discussed. Recommendations and issues for future research in the light of the qualitative and quantitative findings are presented.