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Given the worldwide growth of the over-the-counter (OTC) drug market and the increase in the direct-to-consumer advertising of medicines, pharmaceutical branding has become an increasingly important component affecting the consumer’s beliefs about, and hence their responses towards, OTC medicines. The brand name is one of the most important external cues for brand evaluation and influences various aspects of consumer-brand association (e.g., perceived quality/efficacy, brand attitude, and brand image). Although sound symbolism, which refers to the non-arbitrary association that exists between particular sound sequences and specific meanings in speech, has proven to be an effective means of creating successful brand names in a wide range of products, surprisingly little attention has been paid to its application in the case of pharmaceutical branding. In this study, we systematically investigated whether and how consonants in drug brand names influence consumers’ medicine expectancies (e.g., medicinal power, long-lasting efficacy). Across three experiments, a robust effect of voiced (vs. voiceless) consonants present in brand names on the perceived potency and activity for target medicines was found. In addition, the results also revealed that voiced (vs. voiceless) consonants increase the expectancies of medicine effectiveness, duration of medicine activity, price, and potential side effects. Furthermore, we found that the perceived potency and activity for brand names significantly mediated the effect of voiced consonants. Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of the role of consonant sound symbolism in brand name development and can potentially help pharmaceutical firms to create appropriate brand names that can effectively communicate information concerning a medicine’s properties.

Artists have long been interested in the crossmodal links that exist between colour and scent. While traditionally envisioned as a kind of synaesthesia, contemporary accounts of the connections between this particular pair of senses have typically focused on explanations in terms of involuntarily-induced crossmodal mental imagery and crossmodal correspondences instead. A large body of empirical research now supports the view that the majority of non-synaesthetic individuals do indeed systematically match colours to odours, via semantic (or source-object based) matching, and/or on the basis of emotional-mediation or perceptual similarity. Universal agreement with regard to the best- matching colours for odours is, however, never obtained. What is more, the consensuality of the crossmodal mappings obtained within groups of individuals (and especially across culture, and age) tend to decline when one moves away from semantically- based crossmodal matches. As such, the longstanding aim amongst certain artists to play with the abstract correspondences between scent, colour, and, on occasion, also sound in order to try to deliver universally-meaningful crossmodal correspondences seems unlikely ever to be realized. Nevertheless, that does not mean that scent and colour can’t still be linked in intriguing ways, as illustrated by a number of the exhibits at the 2015 Tate Sensorium multisensory exhibition in London.

Charles W. Eriksen dedicated much of his research career to the field of cognitive psychology, investigating human information processing in those situations that required selection between competing stimuli. Together with his wife Barbara, he introduced the flanker task, which became one of the standard experimental tasks used by researchers to investigate the mechanisms underpinning selection. Although Eriksen himself was primarily interested in investigating visual selection, the flanker task was eventually adapted by other researchers to investigate human information processing and selection in a variety of nonvisual and multisensory situations. Here, we discuss the core aspects of the flanker task and interpret the evidence of the flanker task when used in crossmodal and multisensory settings. “Selection” has been a core topic of psychology for nearly 120 years. Nowadays, though, it is clear that we need to look at selection from a multisensory perspective—the flanker task, at least in its crossmodal and multisensory variants, is an important tool with which to investigate selection, attention, and multisensory information processing.

Sonic seasoning refers to the way in which music can influence multisensory tasting experiences. To date, the majority of the research on sonic seasoning has been conducted in Europe or the USA, typically in a within-participants experimental context. In the present study, we assessed the applicability of sonic seasoning in a large-scale between-participants setting in Asia. A sample of 1611 participants tasted one sample of chocolate while listening to a song that evoked a specific combination of cross-modal and emotional consequences. The results revealed that the music&rsquo, s emotional character had a more prominent effect than its cross-modally corresponding attributes on the multisensory tasting experience. Participants expressed a higher buying intention for the chocolate and rated it as having a softer texture when listening to mainly positive (as compared to mainly negative) music. The chocolates were rated as having a more intense flavor amongst those participants listening to &lsquo, softer&rsquo, as compared to &lsquo, harder&rsquo, music. Therefore, the present study demonstrates that music is capable of triggering a combination of specific cross-modal and emotional effects in the multisensory tasting experience of a chocolate.

There is a growing interest in insects as a promising alternative source of protein that can potentially contribute to help solving the imminent global food crisis. However, research on insect-based foods (IBFs) has repeatedly pointed to the fact that, in many countries and cultures, negative attitudes towards eating insects are one of the most significant obstacles to promoting the consumption of IBFs. To date, only a small number of studies have investigated effective strategies to increase the acceptance of those foods. The research reported here focused on the role of celebrity endorsement, which is one of the most prevalent marketing strategies used to promote a wide range of products. We systematically explored whether and how such a strategy might affect the consumers’ willingness to eat (WTE) IBFs. Our results provide the first demonstration that celebrities’ perceived trustworthiness, knowledge about IBFs, and appropriateness (as an endorser of IBF products) are significant celebrity characteristics affecting people’s WTE IBFs. We also found that celebrity type (i.e., actor/actress, musician, or athlete) interacts with participant gender in terms of their WTE those foods. Namely, for male participants, IBF ads featuring actors/actresses or athletes were effective for increasing their WTE those foods. Meanwhile, for female participants, only actors/actresses significantly increased their WTE those foods. Endorsement by a musician did not increase the WTE of either male or female respondents. Together, these findings demonstrate the celebrity endorsement as a prominent strategy to increase the WTE IBFs and reveal how and when the strategy is effective for promoting IBFs.

During the first sequence of lockdowns implemented in many countries around the world in early 2020 as a result of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, there was widespread concern amongst many health professionals regarding a predicted rise in alcohol consumption. However, studies have reported diverse findings, with some consumer groups exhibiting an increase and others a decrease in their alcohol purchase and consumption patterns. Although the long-lasting changes in alcohol consumption, if any, are still unknown, the current situation has effectively accelerated a number of pre-existing trends which will likely continue in the future. E-commerce is growing steadily, mainly because of the restrictions within the on-trade channel and concerns around catching COVID-19 amongst consumers, thus lifting traditional barriers to the adoption of digital channels. Premiumization has also grown significantly during the pandemic, especially in the spirits category, due, in part, to the fact that consumers have been increasingly trying to recreate bar and restaurant quality gastronomic experiences in the privacy of their own homes. The trend toward homemade experiences is multi-stakeholder as consumers, retailers, restaurateurs, bar owners, and brands all try to help facilitate at-home consumption experiences. Larger size purchases seem to reflect not only the stockpiling phenomena that occurred during the initial phases of the pandemic but also convenience for consumers (e.g., avoiding queues). Additionally, the growing home mixology movement has been observed to result in consumers buying larger amounts of alcohol in order to facilitate cocktail making experimentation at home. It is important to stress, though, that this review was specially focused on available data from the first three quarters of 2020, as an effort to identify and understand the first impacts the COVID-19 was creating amongst alcohol consumers. It currently remains uncertain how these trends will evolve, and whether or not they will continue post COVID-19 (whenever that might be). Key similarities and differences across national markets are highlighted.

After an object disappears, the vanishing point is shifted in the direction of motion, a phenomenon known as representational momentum. The present study focused on the relationship between motion information and spatial location in a crossmodal setting. In two visuotactile experiments, we studied how motion information in one sensory modality affects the perceived final location of a motion signal (congruent vs. incongruent left-right motion direction) in another modality. The results revealed a unidirectional crossmodal influence of motion information on spatial localization performance. While visual motion information influenced the perceived final location of the tactile stimulus, tactile motion information had no influence on visual localization. These results therefore extend the existing literature on crossmodal influences on spatial location and are discussed in relation to current theories of multisensory perception.

One of the entry routes of SARS-CoV-2 is the nasal epithelium. Although mounting evidence suggests the presence of olfactory dysfunction, and even anosmia, in patients with COVID-19, it is not clear whether these patients also suffer from other “nasal” symptoms that may influence their olfaction. A group of 35 patients with COVID-19 (and a control group matched in gender and age) were surveyed about the presence of a variety of nasal symptoms that may be associated to drastic perturbations experienced in the nasal cavity (e.g., “excessive dryness” and/or a continual sensation of having had a “nasal douche”). We used a cross-sectional, retrospective survey, targeted at the general population by means of non-quoted, non-random, snowball sampling. Symptoms were assessed with absence/presence responses. The possible association between two continuously distributed latent variables from categorical variables was estimated by means of polychoric correlations. More than 68% of the patients reported at least one “nasal” symptom. The clinical group also experienced “a strange sensation in the nose” and having excessive nasal dryness significantly more often than the control group. Fifty-two percent of the patients (but only 3% of the control group) reported a constant sensation of having had a strong nasal douche. Nasal symptoms predominantly co-occurred with anosmia/hyposmia, and ageusia/hypogeusia, appeared principally before or during the other symptoms of COVID-19, and lasted for twelve days, in average. The presence of these nasal symptoms, and their early occurrence, could potentially facilitate early diagnosis of COVID-19 and initial social distancing efforts.

The failure of e-books to take over from the traditional print format, as was so confidently predicted would happen only a few years ago, highlights how there is more to reading than merely the content of what we see. In fact, like any other object, the experience of interacting with a book, especially an old or historic volume, offers the reader the potential for a multisensory encounter. One that involves not only what the book looks and feels like, both the weight of the volume and the feel of the pages, but also the distinctive smell. In fact, one might also want to consider the particular sound made by the pages as they are turned over. However, it is the smell of older, and seemingly more olfactorily-redolent, works that appears to be especially effective at triggering nostalgic associations amongst readers. It is therefore only by understanding the multisensory nature of handling books, as stressed by this review, that one can really hope to fully appreciate the enduring appeal of the traditional format in the modern digital era. Several recent exhibitions that have attempted to engage their visitors by means of exploring the multisensory appeal of historic books or manuscripts in their collections are briefly discussed. While the multisensory mental imagery that is typically evoked by reading is unlikely to differ much between the print and e-book formats, there is nevertheless still some evidence to suggest that physical books can occasionally convey information more effectively than their digital counterparts.

The increased disruption of business models through digital technologies creates opportunities and challenges for retail businesses and their network partners. Digital transformation – the process of digitalization of previously analogue operations, procedures, organizational tasks, and managerial processes in order to drive value for customers, employees and other stakeholders – is the order of the day. With that in mind, this article provides a purposeful overview of research in the field of digital transformation with a focus on retailing and customer-facing functions of digital technologies such as managing customer journeys, assessing the impact of sensory marketing and the use of service robots on the one hand, and their strategic implications for business models such as servitization on the other. This article concludes by highlighting immediate as well as long-term challenges in the field, with a focus on disruptive technologies, innovations and trends that retail marketing-management will likely face in the near future.

Recent evidence demonstrates that the presentation of crossmodally corresponding auditory stimuli can modulate the taste and hedonic evaluation of various foods (an effect often called "sonic seasoning"). To further understand the mechanism underpinning such crossmodal effects, the time at which a soundtrack was presented relative to tasting was manipulated in a series of experiments. Participants heard two soundtracks corresponding to sweet and bitter tastes either exclusively during or after chocolate tasting (Experiment 1) or during and before chocolate tasting (Experiment 2). The results revealed that the soundtracks affected chocolate taste ratings only if they were presented before or during tasting but not if they were heard after tasting. Moreover, participants' individual soundtrack-taste association mediated the strength of the sonic seasoning effect. These results therefore imply that the modulatory effect of sound on taste was not driven by retrospective interpretation of the taste experience, but by mechanisms such as priming and crossmodal association. Taken together, these studies demonstrate the complex interplay of cognitive mechanisms that likely underlie sonic seasoning effects. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

What we taste is affected by what we see, and that includes the colour, opacity, and shape of the food we consume. We report two experiments designed to investigate how the standard deviation (SD) of the luminance distribution of food images influences the perceived visual texture and the taste/flavour experience by using the latest Augmented Reality (AR) technology. We developed a novel AR system capable of modifying the luminance distribution of foods in real-time using dynamic image processing for simulating actual eating situations. Importantly, this form of dynamic image manipulation does not change the colour on the food (which has been studied extensively previously). Instead, the approach outlined here was used to change the SD of the luminance distribution of the food while keeping the chromaticity, the average luminance, and the skewness constant. We investigated the effects of changing the luminance SD distribution of Baumkuchen (a German baked cake) and tomato ketchup on visual perception, flavour expectations, and the ensuing taste experience. Participants looked at a piece of Baumkuchen (Experiment 1) or a spoonful of tomato ketchup (Experiment 2) having different luminance distributions and evaluated the taste on sampling the food. Manipulating the SD of the luminance distribution affected not only the expected taste/flavour of the food (e.g. expected moistness, wateriness and deliciousness), but also the actual taste properties on sampling the food itself. The novel food modification method and system outlined here can therefore potentially be used to control the taste/flavour of different foods crossmodally by means of modifying their appearance properties (specifically the SD of the luminance distribution while keeping other aspects of image statistics constant), and can do so in real time, without the need for food markers.

The layout of visual elements in advertising influences consumers' perception and judgments. The research reported here investigates the influence of the face orientation of a human model on the perception of their attractiveness and its downstream consequences on product evaluation. Across five experiments, we first demonstrate that consumers tend to perceive a model's face showing his or her left cheek as more attractive than when showing the right cheek, even when the images are otherwise identical. More importantly, we demonstrate the downstream influence of face orientation on the evaluation of advertised products whereby the leftward (vs. rightward) model's face increases the evaluation of the advertised product through perceived model attractiveness. We identify the underlying mechanism of the face orientation effect, namely, that consumers perceive those faces showing their left (vs. right) cheek as more prototypical, and that this perception of prototypicality elicits an aesthetic preference for the model's leftward face which in turn carries over to influence product evaluation. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are also discussed.

A new wave of research interest in the cognitive sciences has started to investigate the ways in which different sensory modalities interact when people represent to the objects and events that surround them. Behavioural studies of people s memory for visual stimuli have highlighted the presence of a number of different memory systems each with a different and highly specific function. Evidence in support of the existence of a modality-specific form of tactile short-term memory also comes from a study by M. J. Watkins and O. C. Watkins. The results of the research reviewed highlight some of the most important characteristics and limitations of people's memory for tactile information. The comparison between studies that have used different modalities of stimulus presentation suggests that haptic exploration typically results in significantly better memory than passive tactile stimulation on the body surface.

Cognitive neuroscientists have started to uncover the neural substrates, systems, and mechanisms enabling us to prioritize the processing of certain sensory information over other, currently less-relevant, inputs. However, there is still a large gap between the knowledge generated in the laboratory and its application to real-life problems of attention as when, for example, interface operators are multi-tasking. In this Element, laboratory studies on crossmodal attention (both behavioural/psychophysical and cognitive neuroscience) are situated within the applied context of driving. We contrast the often idiosyncratic conditions favoured by much of the laboratory research, typically using a few popular paradigms involving simplified experimental conditions, with the noisy, multisensory, real-world environments filled with complex, intrinsically-meaningful stimuli. By drawing attention to the differences between basic and applied studies in the context of driving, we highlight a number of important issues and neglected areas of research as far as the study of crossmodal attention is concerned.

This study was designed to investigate the complex interplay between multisensory processing, top–down processes related to the task relevance of sensory signals, and sensory switching. Thirty-five adults completed either a speeded detection or a discrimination task using the same auditory and visual stimuli and experimental setup. The stimuli consisted of unisensory and multisensory presentations of the letters ‘b’ and ‘d’. The multisensory stimuli were either congruent (e.g., the grapheme ‘b’ with the phoneme /b/) or incongruent (e.g., the grapheme ‘b’ with the phoneme /d/). In the detection task, the participants had to respond to all of the stimuli as rapidly as possible while, in the discrimination task, they only responded on those trials where one prespecified letter (either ‘b’ or ‘d’) was present. Incongruent multisensory stimuli resulted in faster responses as compared to unisensory stimuli in the detection task. In the discrimination task, only the dual-target congruent stimuli resulted in faster RTs, while the incongruent multisensory stimuli led to slower RTs than to unisensory stimuli; RTs were the slowest when the visual (rather than the auditory) signal was irrelevant, thus suggesting visual dominance. Switch costs were also observed when switching between unisensory target stimuli, while dual-target multisensory stimuli were less likely to be affected by sensory switching. Taken together, these findings suggest that multisensory motor enhancements and sensory switch costs are influenced by top–down modulations determined by task instructions, which can override the influence of prior learnt associations. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00221-020-06014-3.

Our emotions influence our perception. In order to determine whether emotion influences the perception of beer, 32 participants watched either a scene from the movie Wall-E to induce joviality, or a short clip from the Shawshank Redemption to induce sadness. The participants were then required to sample up to 250 mL of Yenda Pale Ale beer and rate it on a variety of taste and flavor characteristics (e.g., bitterness), before completing the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-X (PANAS-X). The data were analyzed using Bayesian t-tests and Null Hypothesis Significance Tests (NHSTs). After applying conservative corrections for multiple comparisons, NHSTs failed to reach statistical significance. However, the effect sizes suggested that inducing joviality, relative to inducing sadness, resulted in the beer being rated as (a) tasting more pleasant, (b) tasting sweeter, and (c) being of higher quality. Following the induction of joviality, participants were also willing to pay more for the beer. The Bayesian analyses indicated that induced emotion can influence flavor perception for complex taste stimuli. The effect sizes and Bayesian analyses are interpreted in terms of Feelings-as-Information theory. These preliminary findings can tentatively be applied to real-world environments such as venues that serve and/or market alcohol.

Charles W. Eriksen (1923–2018), long-time editor of Perception & Psychophysics (1971–1993) – the precursor to the present journal – undoubtedly made a profound contribution to the study of selective attention in the visual modality. Working primarily with neurologically normal adults, his early research provided both theoretical accounts for behavioral phenomena as well as robust experimental tasks, including the well-known Eriksen flanker task. The latter paradigm has been used and adapted by many researchers over the subsequent decades. While Eriksen’s research interests were primarily focused on situations of unimodal visual spatially selective attention, here I review evidence from those studies that have attempted to extend Eriksen’s general approach to non-visual (i.e., auditory and tactile) selection and the more realistic situations of multisensory spatial attentional selection.

Multisensory processing is required for the perception of the majority of everyday objects and events. In the case of irrelevant stimuli, the multisensory processing of features is widely assumed to be modulated by attention. In the present study, we investigated whether the processing of audiovisual distractors is also modulated by higher-order cognition. Participants fixated a visual distractor viewed via a centrally-placed mirror and responded to a laterally-presented audiovisual target. Critically, a distractor tone was presented from the same location as the mirror, while the visual distractor feature was presented at an occluded location, visible only indirectly via mirror reflection. Consequently, it appeared as though the visual and auditory features were presented from the same location though, in fact, they actually originated from different locations. Nevertheless, the results still revealed that the visual and auditory distractor features were processed together just as in the control condition, in which the audiovisual distractor features were both actually presented from fixation. Taken together, these results suggest that the processing of irrelevant multisensory information is not influenced by higher-order cognition.

Of all the oral sensations that are experienced, “metallic” is one that is rarely reported in healthy participants. So why, then, do chemotherapy patients so frequently report that “metallic” sensations overpower and interfere with their enjoyment of food and drink? This side-effect of chemotherapy—often referred to (e.g., by patients) as “metal mouth”—can adversely affect their appetite, resulting in weight loss, which potentially endangers (or at the very least slows) their recovery. The etiology of “metal mouth” is poorly understood, and current management strategies are largely unevidenced. As a result, patients continue to suffer as a result of this poorly understood phenomenon. Here, we provide our perspective on the issue, outlining the evidence for a range of possible etiologies, and highlighting key research questions. We explore the evidence for “metallic” as a putative taste, and whether “metal mouth” might therefore be a form of phantageusia, perhaps similar to already-described “release-of-inhibition” phenomena. We comment on the possibility that “metal mouth” may simply be a direct effect of chemotherapy drugs. We present the novel theory that “metal mouth” may be linked to chemotherapy-induced sensitization of TRPV1. Finally, we discuss the evidence for retronasal olfaction of lipid oxidation products in the etiology of “metal mouth.” This article seeks principally to guide much-needed future research which will hopefully one day provide a basis for the development of novel supportive therapies for future generations of patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Research on the crossmodal correspondences has grown dramatically over the last decade. In this review, we focus specifically on audiovisual correspondences between simple auditory and visual stimuli in neurologically normal adults. We review the evidence highlighting the many effects that such crossmodal correspondences have now been documented to have both on people's perception and on their behavior. The latest research on the neural underpinnings of the correspondences is also reviewed in the context of early perceptual versus later cognitive processes. In addition, we address the thorny issue of the relationship between crossmodal correspondences, sound symbolism, and synesthesia.

International audience; The intention to send a crewed mission to Mars involves a huge amount of planning to ensure a safe and successful mission. Providing adequate amounts of food for the crew is a major task, but 20 years of feeding astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have resulted in a good knowledge base. A crucial observation from the ISS is that astronauts typically consume only 80% of their daily calorie requirements when in space. This is despite daily exercise regimes that keep energy usage at very similar levels to those found on Earth. This calorie deficit seems to have little effect on astronauts who spend up to 12 months on the ISS, but given that a mission to Mars would take 30 to 36 months to complete, there is concern that a calorie deficit over this period may lead to adverse effects in crew members. The key question is why astronauts undereat when they have a supply of food designed to fully deliver their nutritional needs. This review focuses on evidence from astronauts that foods taste different in space, compared to on Earth. The underlying hypothesis is that conditions in space may change the perceived flavor of the food, and this flavor change may, in turn, lead to underconsumption by astronauts. The key areas investigated in this review for their potential impact on food intake are the effects of food shelf life, physiological changes, noise, air and water quality on the perception of food flavor, as well as the link between food flavor and food intake.

While flavor perception may well be one of the most multisensory of our everyday experiences, researchers interested in multisensory perception have, until very recently at least, tended to stay away from the chemical senses. That said, a growing body of cognitive neuroscience research is now helping scientists to gain a better handle on the extent to which the rules of crossmodal interaction and multisensory integration documented for the spatial senses of vision, hearing, and touch are similar to/different from those used to integrate gustatory, olfactory, and trigeminal cues in the case of multisensory flavor perception. What we see, hear, and feel (both inside the oral cavity and elsewhere) influences what we taste, not to mention how much we enjoy the ensuing flavor experience. What we taste can be thought of as the sensory-discriminative and how much we enjoy as the hedonic response to food, respectively. That said, researchers disagree as to whether the sight, feel, and sound of food should be considered as constitutive of flavor perception or else merely as modulatory factors. In recent years, neuroimaging studies have started to identify some of the core neural circuits involved in the processing of food stimuli and controlling our responses to them (i.e., our feeding behavior). Nevertheless, the key point to note is that researchers have started to gain a much better understanding of multisensory integration as far as the flavor senses are concerned, and such insights are now starting to influence new food product development.

Research on those variables that have been shown to influence the consumer’s choice of beer is reviewed. The focus is on the choice of whether to drink beer as opposed to a beverage from another category, and to a greater extent, the choice between different types or styles of beer. Inspired by previous research on a diverse array of factors that have been shown to influence food and beverage choice, the review examines how beer choice is driven by consumer variables (covering biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors), product-intrinsic attributes (the sensory aspects of the beer itself), product-extrinsic attributes (external sensory characteristics, such as packaging), and contextual and environmental influences. These situational factors refer to variables such as the location where choice/consumption takes place (i.e., on- versus off-trade), as well as the context, occasion, and reason for drinking. Current trends related to choice and consumption, such as the emerging interest in beer-food pairing, are also examined. The review groups these attributes which affect people’s beer wanting, choice, and purchase in order to understand the beer consumer’s choice process. Along with general conclusions, a number of key directions for future research are also presented, given that the relative contribution of each type of factor on consumer’s choice behaviour is still unclear.

We report on the creative process underlying the development of an edible version of Jastrow's (1899) famous bistable duck/rabbit illusion. The culinary research team at Kitchen Theory took this well-known visual illusion as the inspiration for the creation of a new dish using both duck and rabbit as key ingredients. A simplified version of the illusion was stencilled onto the plate and a ‘crispy dumpling’ of confit duck and rabbit leg placed to one side. We report the results of a large-scale online study designed to assess the visual percept elicited on first viewing the edible version of “Jastrow's Bistable Bite” dish. We assessed whether the orientation in which the dish is presented initially would influence the percept that dominates initially. The results revealed that when served in certain specific orientations the two interpretations – duck and rabbit – were roughly equally dominant. Hence, serving the dish to the diner in one of these specific orientations is likely ideal for generating discussion at the dinner table around the role of vision in multisensory flavour perception. The hope is that the introduction of this dish onto the menu can be used to promote a sustainability message (given that many people believe that we should be eating more rabbit than is currently the case).

Colour affects many aspects of our lives. One area of particular interest in recent years has been the role of colour cues in the perception of food and drink. While the majority of this research has tended to focus on the impact of changing the colour of the product itself, there is now a growing body of scientifically-credible research (building on earlier anecdotal claims) that the colour of the background against which food and drink is served affects both people’s perception of it, and also their serving and consumption behaviour as well. In this review, the empirical evidence on this topic is summarized and the various mechanisms that have been put forward to account for such results outlined. Gaining a better understanding of when, and why, background colour impacts our food preferences, perception, and ultimately our behaviour, is likely to be important to chefs, food bloggers, restaurateurs, packaging designers, and those working on encouraging various special needs populations to consume more (or less).

Complexity is a term that is often invoked by people when writing appreciatively about the taste, aroma/bouquet, and/or flavour of wine. However, it is not clear what exactly wine complexity refers to. The present study was designed to uncover which attributes are most strongly linked to the social drinker’s perception of complexity in wine. Notably, unlike previous studies of wine complexity, we assessed the temporal component of complexity by acquiring information from participants at the various stages of smelling, tasting, and aftertaste. Furthermore, natural language processing techniques were used to analyse participants’ flavour descriptors in order to assess their semantic associations with complexity. Eight wines, chosen for their ability to showcase various aspects of complexity, were tasted in three flights, grouped by dry white, red, and sweet wines. Participants rated the perceived liking, quality, and complexity of each wine, as well as listing flavours of the wines perceived at different stages (aroma, in-mouth, post-swallowing). The results demonstrated that complexity was positively correlated with liking and with quality, but not with the price of the wines or the number of flavours detected. Furthermore, semantic analysis revealed that participants used more consistent vocabulary to describe wines that they perceived to be more complex. We also observed similar consistency trends for wines that were liked more, as well as wines rated to be lower quality. In general, secondary and tertiary flavours (derived from fermentation or from ageing) were more often used to describe more complex wines. These results reveal intriguing patterns in how social drinkers assess perceive/infer wine complexity, as well as elucidating the relationship between complexity, quality, and liking.

The human sense of smell is highly sensitive, often conveying important biological signals. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that we commonly fail to notice suprathreshold environmental olfactory stimuli. The determinants of olfactory awareness are, as yet, unknown. Here, we adapted the inattentional-blindness paradigm to test whether olfactory awareness is dependent on attention. Across three experiments, participants performed a visual search task with either a high or low perceptual load (a well-established attentional manipulation) while exposed to an ambient coffee aroma. Consistent with our hypothesis, results showed that task load modulated olfactory awareness: 42.5% fewer participants in the high- than in the low-load condition reported noticing the coffee aroma. Our final experiment demonstrates that because of unique characteristics of olfactory habituation, the consequences of inattentional anosmia can persist even once attention becomes available. These findings establish the phenomenon of inattentional anosmia and have applied implications for predicting when people may miss potentially important olfactory information.

We report two experiments designed to extend the well-known Bouba/Kiki effect to the case of an unusual set of commercially produced plateware, and further to assess the influences of these plates on the expected taste of a dessert based on the theory of crossmodal correspondences. The results demonstrate that plates having a smoother circumference are more likely to be matched to ‘Bouba’, while those with a pointier circumference are more likely to be matched to ‘Kiki’ instead, thus demonstrating the typical Bouba/Kiki effect. Importantly, the shape and colour of the plates modulated people’s ratings of the expected taste and liking of the ice cream/sorbet displayed on them. Specifically, the colour of the plate induced a general effect on the expected tastes that were consistent with the white-sweet and black-bitter associations, and the higher expected liking of the ice cream/sorbet was attributed to the higher colour contrast between the food and plate. The shape of the plate modulated ratings of expected liking for the chocolate ice cream and the expected sweetness of the lemon sorbet. Finally, colour and shape conjointly modulated how sour the lemon sorbet was expected to taste. These results provide relevant insights for those chefs, restaurateurs and Instagrammers wishing to optimize the plateware for specific dishes.

Transparency in product packaging is appearing more frequently in the food/drink marketplace. That said, relatively little is known about the impact of seeing the food/drink within (as compared to more traditional opaque packaging designs) on product perception or consumer purchase intentions. The research reported here was specifically designed to address this important issue. Participants in an online experiment provided product evaluations of food packaging designs shown visually, as well as rated their willingness to purchase the product, across four product categories. This experiment compared packaging designs with: a transparent window, an image of the product on opaque packaging, or plain opaque packaging. Efforts were made to maximise ecological validity using ‘mock-up’ brands (that do not exist in real life) in order to avoid familiarity effects or bias from prior experience. The results highlighted the fact that transparent packaging increased willingness to purchase, expected freshness, and expected quality, as compared to packaging that used food imagery instead. In addition, participants expected the products to be tastier, to be more innovative, and were more liked overall in several of the product categories that were assessed. Mediation analyses suggested that transparent windows on product packaging can lead to increased willingness to purchase through a variety of means differing by product category. The implications of this research for brand managers, marketers, and public health researchers are discussed.

Coffee is one of the world’s most frequently consumed beverages, and coffee culture is an increasingly popular phenomenon across the world. Atmospheric elements are especially important for the design of coffee shops. However, it is still unclear how the visual atmospherics (e.g., colour scheme, lightness) of coffee shop interiors influence the consumer’s evaluations of coffee shops and their expectations concerning the coffee beverages they serve. The present research was designed to understand the role of one aspect of the visual atmosphere, namely the colour parameters of the interiors of coffee shop, on the consumer evaluation of the coffee shops themselves and on the expected sensory properties of the coffees served there. Ratings of taste expectations, likelihood of visiting, and emotions were evaluated for each of 50 coffee shop images and averaged across 65 participants. The color parameters (L*, a*, b*, saturation) of the coffee shop interior were calculated using digital image analysis. The results demonstrate that more reddish and lighter coloured coffee shop images were associated with the expectation that the coffee shop would serve a sweeter coffee, while more greenish and darker coloured coffee shop images were associated with more sour/bitter/tastier coffee expectations as well as a higher likelihood of visiting. Moreover, emotions, specifically feelings of calmness, mediated the relation between color parameters and taste expectations/likelihood of visiting. Taken together, these results provide evidence on the role of visual atmospherics of coffee shops on consumer evaluations and provide a number of practical implications for the coffee outlets/cafes.

The interest in healthy food has grown rapidly amongst both consumers and food manufacturers in recent years. However, which foods should be considered healthy is sometimes ambiguous. Identifying those factors that influence the perception of healthfulness is of interest both to consumers and to food manufacturers. Previous research has shown that product-intrinsic (e.g., nutrition) and product-extrinsic (e.g., the colour of the packaging) factors can shape the consumers’ perception of healthy food. However, it is less clear how brand names, one of the important product-extrinsic factors, influence the perception of healthy food. Relying on the theory of sound symbolism, we investigated whether the sounds present in fictitious brand names would influence the expected healthfulness of food. Across four studies, we demonstrate that phonemic sounds with higher (vs. lower) frequencies (e.g., /f, s, i, e/ vs. /b, d, g, o, u/) are perceived to be healthier. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate the phenomenon using general categories of “healthy” vs. “unhealthy” foods, whereas Studies 3 and 4 conceptually replicate the results using the names (or descriptions) of food products (e.g., “vegetable vs. beef sandwich”) and a different study design (within-participants for Study 3 and between-participants for Study 4). We also explore the boundary conditions for this sound symbolic effect, demonstrating that higher (vs. lower) frequency sounds change the health perception of savoury food products, but not sweet ones (Studies 3 and 4). These findings provide actionable insights for those wanting to develop brand names for food products and reveal its important link with the consumers' perceptions of healthy food.