Auditory Pitch as a Perceptual Analogue to Odor Quality

Abstract

A bstract-Experitnuits in cross-modal niatcliing siiggest that stitells can be arranged by odor qiiality along the color diniensions of liiie arid liglitness. Here we report that subjects readily aa'jilrst the Ioiidness-eqiialized pitcli of mi aiiditory tone to niatclt a stiniiiliis odor. Tlie resiilts olloiv odors to be arranged in seqiience by their pitclteqiiiralerits. Tlie torte nmtches appear to be based 011 perceptual featiires of olfaction other tlian stiltiiiliis intensitj or pleasarimess. Tlie resiilrs siiggest that featiires of odor qiiality niay be niore accessible arid striictiired tlian previoiisly acknowledged.

Crossmodal correspondences between visual, olfactory and auditory information

“…There could be many possible reasons for this; following are a few of the more likely explanations: (i) that there exists corresponding dimensions between sensory modalities, although not between auditory frequency/grey pictures and olfaction, at least not for whiskey or n-butanol. This would contradict an earlier study by Belkin et al (1997), who found that people assign certain frequencies to different odors. Although, the designs of the experiments differ, and so does the presented olfactory stimuli; thus, no conclusive inferences can be made.…”

“…If there were actual correspondences between, say, sound frequency and grayscale, the participants may have used the same strategy for the remaining matching's, because of a belief that this was what was expected from them. One alternative procedure could have been the method used by Belkin et al (1997), i.e., letting the subjects choose what frequency actually corresponded to each odor. Those frequencies could later on be used in the experimental design presented here.…”

“…During the past decades the topic of crossmodal correspondences has gained in interest. Crossmodal correspondences have been found between many different sensory modalities, for example: betwee n audition and touch (Yau et al, 2009), olfaction and touch (Demattè et al, 2006a), vision and touch (Martino & Marks, 2000), auditory pitch and smell (Belkin et al, 1997), color and olfaction (Demattè et al, 2006b;Kemp & Gilbert, 1996), shapes and olfaction (Seo et al, 2010), color and taste , nonsense-words/shapes and taste (Spence & Gallace, 2011), and taste and musical notes (Crisinel & Spence, 2010).…”

“…For instance, Belkin et al, (1997) investigated whether qualitatively different odors corresponded with different pitch of a sinus tone, finding that this was the case. Furthermore, Kemp and Gilbert (1997) found correspondences between visual lightness and odor intensity, using three different concentrations of different odors.…”

That Sounds Sweet: Using Cross‐Modal Correspondences to Communicate Gustatory Attributes

“…sweet) with sounds which are liked more. However, Crisinel and Spence (2012) by testing those who liked or disliked dark chocolate showed that pleasantness matching cannot fully explain the mapping between sweet (bitter) taste and high (low) pitch (see also Belkin, Martin, Kemp, & Gilbert, 1997). In the current study, hedonic relationships appeared to play an important role for the observed sound-taste mappings.…”