Sensation in a tasting of chocolate

Abstract

The present study investigated how blindfolded participants (N =100) integrated information across the sensory domains of hearing, taste, and touch, in three different cross-modal matching tasks. The findings were in line with our predictions and replicated what was found in a previous unpublished study. In the taste-sound task, participants listened to four different vowels (/i/, /y/, /u/, and /a/) and paired each vowel with a type of chocolate (more bitter with 90% cocoa or less bitter with 50% cocoa). The largest differences were between vowel pairs /i/ (more bitter) and /a/ (less bitter), and /y/ (more bitter) and /a/ (less bitter). In the taste-touch task, participants matched each type of chocolate with a physical shape by using a seven-point physical scale; the more bitter chocolate was paired with more complex shapes, and the less bitter chocolate was paired with rounder shapes. In the touch-sound task, participants were asked to pair each vowel (/i/, /y/, /u/, and /a/) with a physical shape by using the same seven-point physical scale; significantly different shape choices were found between these vowel pairs: /i/ and /a/, /i/ and /u/, /i/ and /y/, /y/ and /u/. Within these pairs, vowels /i/ and /y/ were paired with more complex shapes, while /a/ and /u/ were paired with rounder shapes. Lastly, participants also showed greater liking and familiarity of the less bitter chocolate as opposed to the more bitter chocolate, and rated the 50% cocoa chocolate as less bitter when compared to the 90% cocoa chocolate.