That smells blue! Differences between colour associations for odours and odour-evocative words
Kirsten J McKenzie, Andrew T Woods, Christine Leong, Jiana Ren, Jason Chan, Jai Levin, Michael Dodson, Carmel Levitan

Date: 2012-06-20 02:30 PM – 04:00 PM
Last modified: 2012-04-25

Abstract


Strong associations exist between specific odours and colours, and these associations have been found to be both consistent within populations and over time [1]. Experimental manipulations of these associations have shown that both taste and odour perception rely heavily upon visual cues (e.g. [2,3]); participants often make errors in odour judgements when stimuli have been artificially coloured [4], and the presence of a strongly-associated colour can greatly enhance the detection of an odour and the intensity of aromas or flavours [5,6], as well as preference and enjoyment [7,8]. Such associations between colour and odour appear to be based on prior experience [2,3,4,9], and odours are usually perceived alongside visual, taste and tactile sensations, as well as higher order cues such as shape, size and object labelling. As such, an odour maybe perceived quite differently depending upon its current multisensory context, and experiencing an odour without these additional cues is likely to be different from experiencing the odour in a natural multisensory environment. Here we explore if odour-evocative words, rich in semantic connotations, differ in their colour associations compared to those associated with just odour. Twenty individuals were tested in each of four geographical locations; Germany, Malaysia, The Netherlands and the United States of America. Participants chose the three colours they most closely associated with both odours and odour-words from a chart of 36, using Xperiment software (www.xperiment.mobi). Preliminary results indicate that there were differences between odour-evocative words and odour cues in terms of the associated colours, for all populations.

References


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