Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade

Past research investigating crossmodal correspondences of tastes has found that certain tastes are consistently paired with particular speech sounds and shapes. For example, bitter chocolates are paired with angular shapes and sounds like ‘kiki’ (Ngo, Misra & Spence, 2011), while sweet juices ar...

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Main Author: Kwang, Pearlyn Kwai Foong
Other Authors: Suzy J. Styles
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2015
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63896
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-638962019-12-10T14:47:45Z Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade Kwang, Pearlyn Kwai Foong Suzy J. Styles School of Humanities and Social Sciences DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Applied psychology Past research investigating crossmodal correspondences of tastes has found that certain tastes are consistently paired with particular speech sounds and shapes. For example, bitter chocolates are paired with angular shapes and sounds like ‘kiki’ (Ngo, Misra & Spence, 2011), while sweet juices are paired with rounder shapes and sounds like ‘bouba’ (Ngo et al., 2013). This study aimed to expand on the established crossmodal correspondences by evaluating two flavor dimensions simultaneously: sweetness and sourness in a blind tasting of lemonade. Tactile-taste associations were also investigated; specifically, if the tactile perception of an object shape (e.g. spiky or round) can implicitly bias a participant’s taste ratings. Fifty Singaporean participants blind-tasted nine sweet-sour combinations of lemonades and rated the sweetness and sourness level of the juice on a physical scale by dropping either a pointy ball or a round ball into fixed rows of cups. They then performed both sound and shape selection tasks. Results showed that: 1) Participants were more likely to give higher sourness ratings with a round ball than a pointy ball, 2) Sound [i] was paired with sourness, but sound mapping for sweetness was random and, 3) An increase in sourness was mapped onto an increase in convolutions, and an increase in sweetness to an increase in roundness. Implications of these findings in understanding the underlying mechanisms of crossmodal correspondences are discussed. In particular, findings were not entirely supportive of Ramachandran and Hubbard’s (2001) postulation that crossmodal correspondences are based on similarity of abstract features, and suggested the presence of other mechanisms like hedonic and intensity matching. Bachelor of Arts 2015-05-20T02:17:06Z 2015-05-20T02:17:06Z 2015 2015 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63896 en Nanyang Technological University 44 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Applied psychology
spellingShingle DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Applied psychology
Kwang, Pearlyn Kwai Foong
Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
description Past research investigating crossmodal correspondences of tastes has found that certain tastes are consistently paired with particular speech sounds and shapes. For example, bitter chocolates are paired with angular shapes and sounds like ‘kiki’ (Ngo, Misra & Spence, 2011), while sweet juices are paired with rounder shapes and sounds like ‘bouba’ (Ngo et al., 2013). This study aimed to expand on the established crossmodal correspondences by evaluating two flavor dimensions simultaneously: sweetness and sourness in a blind tasting of lemonade. Tactile-taste associations were also investigated; specifically, if the tactile perception of an object shape (e.g. spiky or round) can implicitly bias a participant’s taste ratings. Fifty Singaporean participants blind-tasted nine sweet-sour combinations of lemonades and rated the sweetness and sourness level of the juice on a physical scale by dropping either a pointy ball or a round ball into fixed rows of cups. They then performed both sound and shape selection tasks. Results showed that: 1) Participants were more likely to give higher sourness ratings with a round ball than a pointy ball, 2) Sound [i] was paired with sourness, but sound mapping for sweetness was random and, 3) An increase in sourness was mapped onto an increase in convolutions, and an increase in sweetness to an increase in roundness. Implications of these findings in understanding the underlying mechanisms of crossmodal correspondences are discussed. In particular, findings were not entirely supportive of Ramachandran and Hubbard’s (2001) postulation that crossmodal correspondences are based on similarity of abstract features, and suggested the presence of other mechanisms like hedonic and intensity matching.
author2 Suzy J. Styles
author_facet Suzy J. Styles
Kwang, Pearlyn Kwai Foong
format Final Year Project
author Kwang, Pearlyn Kwai Foong
author_sort Kwang, Pearlyn Kwai Foong
title Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
title_short Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
title_full Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
title_fullStr Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
title_full_unstemmed Crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
title_sort crossmodal correspondences of tastes : an investigation with a blind tasting of lemonade
publishDate 2015
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63896
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