Background: Researchers have demonstrated that a variety of visual factors, such as the colour and balance of the elements on a plate, can influence a diner's perception of, and response to, food. Here, we report on a study designed to assess whether placing the culinary elements of a dish in an art-inspired manner would modify the diner's expectations and hence their experience of food. The dish, a salad, was arranged in one of three different presentations: One simply plated (with all of the elements of the salad tossed together), another with the elements arranged to look like one of Kandinsky's paintings, and a third arrangement in which the elements were organized in a neat (but non-artistic) manner. The participants answered two questionnaires, one presented prior to and the other after eating the dish, to evaluate their expectations and actual sensory experience. Results: Prior to consumption, the art-inspired presentation resulted in the food being considered as more artistic, more complex, and more liked than either of the other presentations. The participants were also willing to pay more for the Kandinsky-inspired plating. Interestingly, after consumption, the results revealed higher tastiness ratings for the art-inspired presentation.

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Previous research has shown that-compared to audio-only presentations-the audiovisual presentation of a musical performance consistently enhances observers' appreciation. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that observation of a musical performance through multiple channels-auditory and visual-may result in a heightened emotional response due to the broader range of actions and cues available (Livingstone & Thompson, 2009). In this study, we set out to investigate how the mode of presentation-audio-only (AO), video-only (VO), and audiovisual (AV)-affects participants' emotional responses to a musical performance. Nineteen adults took part in an experiment in which they were presented with AO, VO, and AV versions of a recorded piano performance. Their emotional responses to the stimuli were measured using self-report combined with psychophysiological indices of experienced emotions (skin conductance and heart rate). In contrast to the predictions arising from previous work, skin conductance responses indicated that emotional arousal was highest in the audioonly presentation mode, compared to both audiovisual and video-only presentation modes. Self-reports of felt emotions did not reveal any significant differences between the AV and AO presentation modes, although both were rated as eliciting more intense emotional responses than the VO mode, and the AO presentation mode elicited more pleasant emotional responses than the VO mode. These findings do not support the view that audiovisual presentations would increase the appreciation of a musical performance as compared to audio-only presentations. Potential explanations for these findings are discussed.

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