When visual cues influence taste/flavour perception: a systematic review

Journal article : Review

There has been a noticeable increase of interest in research on multisensory flavour perception in recent years. Humans are visually dominant creatures and a growing body of research has investigated how visual cues influence taste/flavour perception. At the same time, however, several null or limited findings have also been published recently; that is, studies showing either partial demonstrations or else failing to find any evidence in their data for the influence of specific visual cues on taste/flavour perception. By performing a systematic review and a critical evaluation of the literature that has been published to date, the present paper reveals whether and when visual cues (e.g., colour and shape) affect taste/flavour perception: The reviewed research demonstrates that visual cues can significantly affect taste/flavour perception under certain conditions, but that mixed, limited, and/or null results have also been reported in a number of other studies. We discuss potential moderators (the salience/attentional capture of visual cues, the strength of association between visual cues and taste/flavour, the perceived diagnosticity of visual cues regarding the signalling of taste/flavour, the evaluative malleability of food judgments) that might help to explain a number of the inconsistent findings that have appeared in the literature since 2011. Several important areas of future research in this area of inquiry are also identified.

Authors: Motoki, K; Spence, C; Velasco, C

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Food Quality and Preference
• Volume: 111
• Article number: 104996
• Publication date: 2023-09-23
• Acceptance date: 2023-09-20
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2023.104996
• EISSN: 1873-6343
• ISSN: 0950-3293
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR; shape; crossmodal; colour; taste; flavour; vision
• Subtype: Review