Eating with our ears: assessing the importance of the sounds of consumption on our perception and enjoyment of multisensory flavour experiences
TL;DR: A growing body of research now shows that by synchronizing eating sounds with the act of consumption, one can change a person's experience of what they think that they are eating.
Abstract: Sound is the forgotten flavour sense. You can tell a lot about the texture of a food—think crispy, crunchy, and crackly—from the mastication sounds heard while biting and chewing. The latest techniques from the field of cognitive neuroscience are revolutionizing our understanding of just how important what we hear is to our experience and enjoyment of food and drink. A growing body of research now shows that by synchronizing eating sounds with the act of consumption, one can change a person’s experience of what they think that they are eating.
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The authors distinguish between the experience of the packaged product (buying, transportation, storage, opening the package), the unpacked product (food preparation, cooking, serving, eating), and the postconsumption process (postingestive effects and disposal).
Abstract: The perception of sensory information constitutes the starting point for how a product is experienced: from the cognitive associations and meanings it evokes, whether it is pleasing or not, through to the emotional responses it may activate, and any actions it triggers. Food products are unique in that our interactions with them may involve all of the senses. Experiences with food products are inherently dynamic, implying that modalities may play different roles in various stages of user–product interactions. To assess the consumer perception and acceptance of foods, it is important to sample all stages. Some studies have used a separate approach for each stage, but this complicates comparisons over stages. In the few studies that have utilized a more unified approach, participants rated experiences on an identical subset of sensory-perceptual attributes at each stage, or they focused on perceived importance or satisfaction with modalities. These studies reveal the dynamic character of food experiences, with dominant roles switching between modalities over the different stages. In this chapter, I distinguish between the experience of the packaged product (buying, transportation, storage, opening the package), the unpacked product (food preparation, cooking, serving, eating), and the postconsumption process (postingestive effects and disposal). I discuss each stage based on empirical findings combined with qualitative and personal insights. This overview reveals a general interaction pattern, starting out with exploration from a distance (vision), followed by closer inspection and active engagement (touch), to intimate contact with the product that ultimately involves ingestion (smell and taste), followed by any postingestive effects. Careful monitoring and evaluation are important for unraveling the richness of people’s sensory experiences. In-depth knowledge of interactions provides an important resource for understanding responses to current products, overcoming consumption barriers for uncommon products, and for developing new market offerings.
4 citations
TL;DR: This article found a positive serial dependence for valence and arousal regardless of the stimulus modality on two consecutive trials, regardless of whether the rating on the previous trial was low or high.
Abstract: How we perceive the world is not solely determined by what we sense at a given moment in time, but also by what we processed recently. Here we investigated whether such serial dependencies for emotional stimuli transfer from one modality to another. Participants were presented a random sequence of emotional sounds and images and instructed to rate the valence and arousal of each stimulus (Experiment 1). For both ratings, we conducted an intertrial analysis, based on whether the rating on the previous trial was low or high. We found a positive serial dependence for valence and arousal regardless of the stimulus modality on two consecutive trials. In Experiment 2, we examined whether passively perceiving a stimulus is sufficient to induce a serial dependence. In Experiment 2, participants were instructed to rate the stimuli only on active trials and not on passive trials. The participants were informed that the active and passive trials were presented in alternating order, so that they were able to prepare for the task. We conducted an intertrial analysis on active trials, based on whether the rating on the previous passive trial (determined in Experiment 1) was low or high. For both ratings, we again observed positive serial dependencies regardless of the stimulus modality. We conclude that the emotional experience triggered by one stimulus affects the emotional experience for a subsequent stimulus regardless of their sensory modalities, that this occurs in a bottom-up fashion, and that this can be explained by residual activation in the emotional network in the brain.
3 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The chemical factors causing carbonated beverages to induce this rapid (erosion) or slow mineral loss from dental tissues, as well as wear of restorative materials, are discussed and preventive measures such as modifying chemical and physical properties of nonalcoholic carbonated beverage are discussed.
Abstract: High consumption of carbonated beverages has increased dental problems regarding tooth mineral loss and longevity of the restorative materials. Moreover, if containing fermentable sugars, increased consumption of carbonated beverages will increase dental biofilm accumulation, resulting in severe dental caries lesions. Ultimately, these cause damage to the tooth structure and to the interface between the tooth and the restorative material. In fact, microorganisms organized in accumulated dental biofilms produce weak organic acids, leading to a slow mineral dissolution, resulting in dental caries lesions. On the other hand, a quick loss of tooth structure may occur by the chemical action of these beverages, producing erosion-type lesions. In this chapter, the chemical factors causing carbonated beverages to induce this rapid (erosion) or slow mineral loss (caries) from dental tissues, as well as wear of restorative materials, are discussed. In addition, preventive measures such as modifying chemical and physical properties of nonalcoholic carbonated beverages are discussed.
3 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: A simpler, more descriptive approach is taken that provides completeness to the question of how changing “context” in food and meal situations can alter consumers’ sensory and hedonic experience.
Abstract: Context effects are interactions that occur when one stimulus is presented with another stimulus. Such effects can be categorized as intrinsic (the contextual stimulus is integral to the target stimulus) or extrinsic (the contextual stimulus is external to the target stimulus). In foods and beverages, context effects can also be categorized by their level of examination—at the level of the meal, dish, food or bite and sip. This chapter focuses on intrinsic effects at the most microscopic level—the bite or sip. It examines contextual interactions occurring when one ingredient, flavorant or sensory attribute is perceived within the context of other ingredients, flavorants or sensory attributes, either simultaneously or sequentially. Although these effects can be approached from their underlying sensory mechanisms, for the purpose of presenting them as part of the broader manifestation of “contextual” effects in food, a simpler, more descriptive approach is taken that provides completeness to the question of how changing “context” in food and meal situations can alter consumers’ sensory and hedonic experience.
3 citations
References
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TL;DR: The nervous system seems to combine visual and haptic information in a fashion that is similar to a maximum-likelihood integrator, and this model behaved very similarly to humans in a visual–haptic task.
Abstract: When a person looks at an object while exploring it with their hand, vision and touch both provide information for estimating the properties of the object. Vision frequently dominates the integrated visual-haptic percept, for example when judging size, shape or position, but in some circumstances the percept is clearly affected by haptics. Here we propose that a general principle, which minimizes variance in the final estimate, determines the degree to which vision or haptics dominates. This principle is realized by using maximum-likelihood estimation to combine the inputs. To investigate cue combination quantitatively, we first measured the variances associated with visual and haptic estimation of height. We then used these measurements to construct a maximum-likelihood integrator. This model behaved very similarly to humans in a visual-haptic task. Thus, the nervous system seems to combine visual and haptic information in a fashion that is similar to a maximum-likelihood integrator. Visual dominance occurs when the variance associated with visual estimation is lower than that associated with haptic estimation.
4,142 citations
Book•
22 Jan 1993TL;DR: The authors draw on their own experiments to illustrate how sensory inputs converge on individual neurons in different areas of the brain, how these neurons integrate their inputs, the principles by which this integration occurs, and what this may mean for perception and behavior.
Abstract: Bringing together neural, perceptual, and behavioral studies, The Merging of the Senses provides the first detailed review of how the brain assembles information from different sensory systems in order to produce a coherent view of the external world. Stein and Meredith marshall evidence from a broad array of species to show that interactions among senses are the most ancient scheme of sensory organization, an integrative system reflecting a general plan that supersedes structure and species. Most importantly, they explore what is known about the neural processes by which interactions among the senses take place at the level of the single cell.The authors draw on their own experiments to illustrate how sensory inputs converge (from visual, auditory, and somatosensory modalities, for instance) on individual neurons in different areas of the brain, how these neurons integrate their inputs, the principles by which this integration occurs, and what this may mean for perception and behavior. Neurons in the superior colliculus and cortex are emphasized as models of multiple sensory integrators.Barry E. Stein is Professor of Physiology and M. Alex Meredith is Associate Professor of Anatomy, both at the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University.
2,133 citations
Book•
11 Sep 2013
1,790 citations
"Eating with our ears: assessing the..." refers background in this paper
...The percentages tell their own story: Crocker [9] 0%; Amerine, Pangborn, and Roessler [10] <1%; Delwiche [11] 3%; Verhagen and Engelen [5] <1%; Stevenson [3] 2%; Shepherd [4] 1%; and Stuckey [12] 4% (these percentages were calculated by dividing the number of book pages given over to audition by the total number of book pages....
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...Westport: Avi Publishing; 1961 (cited in Amerine et al., 1965). doi:10.1186/2044-7248-4-3 Cite this article as: Spence: Eating with our ears: assessing the importance of the sounds of consumption on our perception and enjoyment of multisensory flavour experiences....
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...Amerine MA, Pangborn RM, Roessler EB: Principles of Sensory Evaluation of Food....
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...While many people like the sound nowadays [94], traditionally, it was apparently judged to be rather unattractive (see [10], p....
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TL;DR: This study investigates spatial localization of audio-visual stimuli and finds that for severely blurred visual stimuli, the reverse holds: sound captures vision while for less blurred stimuli, neither sense dominates and perception follows the mean position.
1,642 citations
"Eating with our ears: assessing the..." refers background in this paper
...This is an audiotactile version of the phenomenon that we all experience when our brain glues the voice we hear onto the lips we see on the cinema screen despite the fact that the sounds actually originate from elsewhere in the auditorium [107]....
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1,084 citations
"Eating with our ears: assessing the..." refers background in this paper
...when trying to judge how crispy that crisp really is; see also [110])....
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