Assessing the shape symbolism of the taste, flavour, and texture of foods and beverages

Spence, Charles; Ngo, Mary Kim

doi:10.1186/2044-7248-1-12

Cited by 86 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Another plausible explanation is that participants might have found the 71% chocolate to taste more acidic and confounded acidity in the chocolates with bitterness (e.g., [34]). Furthermore, it is plausible that the crystalline structure 1 , and therefore the mouthfeel, of the chocolates could have varied across samples. Although, as the chocolates were produced in the workshop of a master chocolatier, it is likely that chocolate texture was consistent across all the samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the effect of shape on the evaluation of expected and actual chocolate flavour

Wang

Carvalho

Persoone³

et al. 2017

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Background: Shape can play an important role in our perception of food. In this study, the consequences of crossmodal correspondences between shape and taste on the expected and actual experience of eating chocolate were evaluated. Participants were given two identical dark chocolates differing only in terms of their shape (round or angular) and then rated their expectations of sweetness, bitterness, creaminess and liking. Subsequently, they rated their experience of those attributes on tasting the chocolates. Repeated-measures multivariate analyses (RM-MANOVA) of variance were conducted to assess the role of chocolate shape and cacao content on expected and post-taste chocolate ratings. In addition, we assessed the differences between expected and post-taste ratings for each chocolate shape. Results: The results revealed that the shape of the chocolate significantly influenced expected sweetness, bitterness and creaminess. By contrast, it had no significant effect on post-tasting ratings. The round chocolates were judged to be less sweet, more bitter, less creamy and liked less than expected, whereas the angular chocolates were judged to be slightly more creamy than expected. Conclusions: The theory of assimilation and contrast is outlined as one plausible mechanism behind the differences between expectation and the actual taste experience. Implications for food product design and directions for future research are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies have shown that people can reliably match basic tastes to shapes with varying degrees of angularity (see [1], for a review). Most prominent amongst these correspondences is the association between round shapes and sweetness [2][3][4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the effect of shape on the evaluation of expected and actual chocolate flavour

Wang

Carvalho

Persoone³

et al. 2017

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“…Specific contextual variables include, but are not limited to, background music [22]; the size, weight, and composition of cutlery [23]; a product's packaging [24]; colour lighting [25]; and menu item naming [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate shape and colour interact to influence taste and quality judgments

Stewart

Goss

2013

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Background: Research has demonstrated that factors external to the food source can influence consumers' perceptions of food. Contextual factors including cutlery or tableware (for example, size and composition), the atmosphere (for example, noise levels and odours), and packaging (for example, shape and colour) have all been shown to influence the perceptual experience. Plateware has also been shown to influence taste perception since ratings of a dessert (strawberry mousse) were modified by plate colour but not by plate shape. In the current study, which used a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, the effect of plate colour (black versus white) and plate shape (round versus square) on taste perception is re-examined. Through sweetness, intensity, quality, and liking ratings of cheesecake, the current study extends the previous investigation to include an examination of the plate colour by plate shape interaction while using plates with more angular corners.

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“…Noteworthy, other studies have shown that the shape of a plate and food (when 94 it is round as compared to angular) can influence participants' sweetness ratings of the food 95 (resulting in people rating the food as tasting sweeter, see Fairhurst,Pritchard,Opsina,& 96 Deroy, 2015, see also Piqueras-Fiszman, Alcaide, Roura, & Spence, 2012). 97…”

Section: Concentrations 83mentioning

confidence: 99%

The semantic basis of taste-shape associations

Velasco

Woods

Marks

et al. 2015

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Previous research shows that people systematically match tastes with shapes. Here, we assessed the extent to which matching taste and shape stimuli share a common semantic space and whether semantically congruent versus incongruent taste/shape associations can influence the speed with which people respond to both shapes and taste words. In Experiment 1, we used semantic differentiation to assess the semantic space of both taste words and shapes. The results suggest a common semantic space containing two principal components (seemingly potency and evaluation) and two principal clusters, one including round shapes and the taste word "sweet", and the other including angular shapes and the taste words "salty", "sour", and "bitter". The former cluster appears more positivelyvalenced whilst less potent than the latter. In Experiment 2, two speeded classification tasks assessed whether congruent versus incongruent mappings of stimuli and responses (e.g., sweet with round versus sweet with angular) would influence participants' speed of responding, both to shapes and to taste words. The results revealed an overall effect of congruence that was driven mostly when the participants had to classify shapes with taste words as responses. These results are consistent with previous evidence suggesting a close relation (or crossmodal correspondence) between tastes and shape curvature that may derive from common semantic coding, perhaps along the sensory-discriminative and hedonic dimensions.

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Assessing the shape symbolism of the taste, flavour, and texture of foods and beverages

Cited by 86 publications

References 57 publications

Assessing the effect of shape on the evaluation of expected and actual chocolate flavour

Assessing the effect of shape on the evaluation of expected and actual chocolate flavour

Plate shape and colour interact to influence taste and quality judgments

The semantic basis of taste-shape associations

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