Background: We investigated whether consumers' perception of a café latte beverage would be influenced by the colour (transparent, white or blue) of the mug from which it was drunk. Results:In experiment 1, the white mug enhanced the rated "intensity" of the coffee flavour relative to the transparent mug. However, given slight physical differences in the mugs used, a second experiment was conducted using identical glass mugs with coloured sleeves. Once again, the colour of the mug was shown to influence participants' rating of the coffee. In particular, the coffee was rated as less sweet in the white mug as compared to the transparent and blue mugs. Conclusions: Both experiments demonstrate that the colour of the mug affects people's ratings of a hot beverage. Given that ratings associated with the transparent glass mug were not significantly different from those associated with the blue mug in either experiment, an explanation in terms of simultaneous contrast can be ruled out. However, it is possible that colour contrast between the mug and the coffee may have affected the perceived intensity/sweetness of the coffee. That is, the white mug may have influenced the perceived brownness of the coffee and this, in turn, may have influenced the perceived intensity (and sweetness) of the coffee. These results support the view that the colour of the mug should be considered by those serving coffee as it can influence the consumer's multisensory coffee drinking experience. These results add to a large and growing body of research highlighting the influence of product-extrinsic colour on the multisensory perception of food and drink.

In a comparison of the performance of active (n = 15) and passive (n = 15) mechanically yoked subjects who learned their way through a tactile maze, it was shown that active subjects made more errors and took a greater number of trials to reach criterion than did passive subjects. In addition, the difference between active and passive performance was largely accounted for by the greater number of repeated errors made by active subjects. In a second experiment it was found that the poorer performance of active subjects could be attributed to the interfering effects of decisions about which way to move. However, the responsibility for the production of movement had no effect on performance. It was argued that the results reflected limits to the cognitive system, not the haptic system.

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Blindfolded participants felt pairs of raised-line drawings simultaneously, one with each index finger. The stimuli presented at each fingertip were 180 degrees rotations of each other (eg 6 and 9). One finger moved (either actively or passively), and this in turn caused movement of a matched raised line underneath the stationary finger on the other hand, in a yoked manner. Thus, a 6 at the moving finger would be felt as a 9 on the stationary finger. On all trials there was a raised line moving underneath the stationary fully passive finger. For the moving finger, a raised line was present on only half of the trials. When a raised line could be felt at the moving fingertip, the shape followed by this finger was more often reported than was the shape present at the other (stationary) fingertip. However, when no line was present under the moving finger (ie when movement became the major cue for shape), subjects reported experiencing the shape moved under the stationary fingertip. Results are interpreted as an indication that cutaneous information can be more 'attention-getting' than kinaesthetic information, and are considered to support the modality-appropriateness theory.

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