Eating with our ears: assessing the importance of the sounds of consumption on our perception and enjoyment of multisensory flavour experiences

doi:10.1186/2044-7248-4-3

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Eating with our ears: assessing the importance of the sounds of consumption on our perception and enjoyment of multisensory flavour experiences

Journal Article•DOI•

Eating with our ears: assessing the importance of the sounds of consumption on our perception and enjoyment of multisensory flavour experiences

Charles Spence¹•Institutions (1)

University of Oxford¹

03 Mar 2015-Flavour (BioMed Central)-Vol. 4, Iss: 1, pp 3

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.

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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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Journal Article•DOI•

Multisensory Technology for Flavor Augmentation: A Mini Review

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Carlos Velasco¹, Marianna Obrist², Olivia Petit³, Charles Spence⁴•Institutions (4)

BI Norwegian Business School¹, University of Sussex², Inseec Business School³, University of Oxford⁴

30 Jan 2018-Frontiers in Psychology

TL;DR: The role of (extrinsic) visual, auditory, and haptic/tactile elements in modulating flavor perception and more generally, the authors' food and drink experiences is focused on.

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Abstract: There is growing interest in the development of new technologies that capitalize on our emerging understanding of the multisensory influences on flavor perception in order to enhance human-food interaction design. This review focuses on the role of (extrinsic) visual, auditory, and haptic/tactile elements in modulating flavor perception and more generally, our food and drink experiences. We review some of the most exciting examples of recent multisensory technologies for augmenting such experiences. Here, we discuss applications for these technologies, for example, in the field of food experience design, in the support of healthy eating, and in the rapidly-growing world of sensory marketing. However, as the review makes clear, while there are many opportunities for novel human-food interaction design, there are also a number of challenges that will need to be tackled before new technologies can be meaningfully integrated into our everyday food and drink experiences.

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74 citations

Cites background from "Eating with our ears: assessing the..."

...Importantly, though, eating and drinking constitute some of life’s most multisensory experiences (e.g., involving color, shape, sound, vibration, texture roughness, etc., Spence, 2015a)....
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...Whilst research on the principles governing multisensory integration during flavor perception is ongoing (see Prescott, 2015; Spence, 2015a), design guidelines have nevertheless been suggested (Schifferstein and Desmet, 2008; Velasco et al., 2016a)....
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...Vision is critical when it comes to setting our flavor expectations and hence modifying our flavor experiences (Piqueras-Fiszman and Spence, 2015; Spence et al., 2016)....
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...…1 January 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 26 science (e.g., considering the guiding principles of multisensory flavor perception, e.g., Prescott, 2015; Spence, 2015a) and technology in systems capable of augmenting flavor perception can impact what people choose to eat and drink, how they perceive…...
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...The key idea here is that flavor is a multisensory construct (involving taste, or gustation, olfaction, and possibly also trigeminal components; see Kakutani et al., 2017) and all the senses can potentially influence the way in which we experience it (Spence, 2015a)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Comfort food: A review

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Charles Spence¹•Institutions (1)

University of Oxford¹

01 Oct 2017-International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science

TL;DR: The role of comfort foods in alleviating loneliness by priming positive thoughts of previous social interactions, at least among those who are securely attached, has been discussed in this article, and the evidence concerning individual differences in the kinds of food that are likely to constitute comfort food for different sections of the population is also highlighted.

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71 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The influence of soundscapes on the perception and evaluation of beers

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Felipe Reinoso Carvalho¹, Felipe Reinoso Carvalho², Qian (Janice) Wang³, Raymond van Ee¹, Raymond van Ee⁴, Raymond van Ee⁵, Charles Spence³ - Show less +3 more•Institutions (5)

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven¹, Vrije Universiteit Brussel², University of Oxford³, Radboud University Nijmegen⁴, Philips⁵

01 Sep 2016-Food Quality and Preference

TL;DR: The effect of soundscapes on the taste evaluation of beers was analyzed in the research reported in this paper, where three experiments were conducted in which participants tasted a beer twice, and rated the experience, each time under the influence of a different sound stimulus.

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66 citations

Cites background or methods from "Eating with our ears: assessing the..."

...Furthermore, numerous studies have been conducted showing that sound can influence people’s evaluation of the taste/flavor of alcoholic beverages such as wine (North, 2012; Spence et al., 2014; Wang & Spence, 2015a), vodka (Wang & Spence, 2015b), and whisky (Velasco, Jones, King, & Spence 2013)....
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...…on the perception of real foods (e.g., Crisinel et al., 2012; Reinoso Carvalho, Van Ee, Touhafi, et al., 2015; Reinoso Carvalho, Van Ee, Rychtarikova, et al., 2015; Reinoso Carvalho et al., 2015; Wang & Spence, 2016) and beverages (Spence, Velasco, & Knoeferle, 2014; Wang & Spence, 2015a, 2015b)....
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...…a range of taste-related soundtracks have been composed by various artists, designers, and researchers, based on a mented between sound and taste (e.g., Crisinel & Spence, 2009; Crisinel & Spence, 2010; Knoeferle, Woods, Käppler, & Spence, 2015; Mesz, Sigman, & Trevisan, 2012; Wang & Spence, 2016)....
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...Beyond using soundtracks that are made with such gastronomic objectives in mind (see Wang & Spence, 2015, for a comparison of such taste-specific soundtracks), it may also be possible to use, for example, pre-existing songs that were not necessarily produced with such specific objectives in mind,…...
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...The research that has been published to date suggests that external sound (i.e., beyond the sounds that are associated with eating) can, at least under the appropriate conditions, add value and pleasure to the overall eating/drinking experience (e.g., Spence, 2015a, 2015b, for reviews)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

"Smooth operator": Music modulates the perceived creaminess, sweetness, and bitterness of chocolate.

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Felipe Reinoso Carvalho¹, Felipe Reinoso Carvalho², Qian Janice Wang³, Raymond van Ee⁴, Dominique Persoone, Charles Spence³ - Show less +2 more•Institutions (4)

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven¹, Vrije Universiteit Brussel², University of Oxford³, Radboud University Nijmegen⁴

01 Jan 2017-Appetite

TL;DR: Interestingly, and in contrast with previous similar studies, these results demonstrate that in certain cases, sounds can have a perceptual effect on gustatory food attributes without necessarily altering the hedonic experience.

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64 citations

Cites background or result from "Eating with our ears: assessing the..."

...As such, a number of them are starting to use such insights in order to progressively innovate the design of the multisensory dining experiences that they develop (see Spence, 2015b, for a review). l, ETRO, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, rvalho)....
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...…used soundtracks that had been produced specifically for the purpose of modulating basic taste attributes of food, such as sweetness and/or bitterness (Reinoso Carvalho et al., 2015a; see Knoeferle, Woods, K€appler, & Spence, 2015; Kn€oferle & Spence, 2012; Spence & Shankar, 2010, for overviews)....
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...They demonstrate that sounds can, in some cases at least, have a perceptual effect on food without altering its hedonic experience, regardless of the fact that people might prefer one sound stimulus over the other (cf. Wang & Spence, 2015b)....
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...However, it is important to distinguish here between those sounds that are made by the food itself when masticated/consumed (see Spence, 2015a, for a review on the sounds of consumption) and other unrelated sounds and music that may also influence taste/ flavor perception....
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...Moving forward, there is now a growing interest in determining whether sound can also influence people's perception of other flavor attributes as well (Spence, 2015a)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Does Music Influence the Multisensory Tasting Experience

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Felipe Reinoso Carvalho¹, Felipe Reinoso Carvalho², Raymond van Ee³, Raymond van Ee⁴, Raymond van Ee¹, Monika Rychtarikova¹, Abdellah Touhafi², Kris Steenhaut², Dominique Persoone, Charles Spence⁵, Marc Leman⁶ - Show less +7 more•Institutions (6)

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven¹, Vrije Universiteit Brussel², Radboud University Nijmegen³, Philips⁴, University of Oxford⁵, Ghent University⁶

01 Oct 2015-Journal of Sensory Studies

TL;DR: Support is provided for the claim that ambient sound influences taste judgments, and the approach outlined here may help researchers and experience designers to obtain more profound effects of the auditory or multisensory atmosphere.

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Abstract: All of the senses can potentially contribute to the perception and experience of food and drink. Sensory influences come both from the food or drink itself, and from the environment in which that food or drink is tasted and consumed. In this study, participants initially had to pair each of three soundtracks with one of three chocolates (varying on the bitter-sweet dimension). In a second part of the study, the impact of the various music samples on these participants’ ratings of the taste of various chocolates was assessed. The results demonstrate that what people hear exerts a significant influence over their rating of the taste of the chocolate. Interestingly, when the results were analysed based on the participants’ individual music-chocolate matches (rather than the average response of the whole group), more robust crossmodal effects were revealed. These results therefore provide support for the claim that ambient sound influences taste judgments, and potentially provide useful insights concerning the future design of multisensory tasting experiences. Practical Applications The approach outlined here follows the increasing demand from the field of gastronomy for greater influence over the general multisensory atmosphere surrounding eating/drinking experiences. One of the novel contributions of the present research is to show how, by considering a participant's individual response, further insight for user-studies in gastrophysics may be provided. Increasing the personalization of such experiments in the years to come may help researchers to design individualized “sonic seasoning” experiences that are even more effective. In the future, then, the approach outlined here may help researchers and experience designers to obtain more profound effects of the auditory or multisensory atmosphere.

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63 citations

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Journal Article•DOI•

Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion.

[...]

Marc O. Ernst¹, Marc O. Ernst², Martin S. Banks¹•Institutions (2)

University of California, Berkeley¹, Max Planck Society²

24 Jan 2002-Nature

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.

...read moreread less

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.

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4,142 citations

Book•

The Merging of the Senses

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Barry E. Stein¹, M. Alex Meredith•Institutions (1)

VCU Medical Center¹

22 Jan 1993

TL;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.

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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.

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2,133 citations

Book•

Principles of Sensory Evaluation of Food

[...]

Maynard A. Amerine, Rose Marie Pangborn, E. B. Roessler

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....
[...]
...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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Journal Article•DOI•

The Ventriloquist Effect Results from Near-Optimal Bimodal Integration

[...]

David Alais, David C. Burr¹•Institutions (1)

University of Florence¹

03 Feb 2004-Current Biology

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.

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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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Journal Article•DOI•

Immediate perceptual response to intersensory discrepancy.

[...]

Robert B. Welch, David H. Warren

01 Nov 1980-Psychological Bulletin

1,084 citations