Title Participants "What experience unfolds between the senses? Crossmodal correspondences in a retail context." "Carmen ADAMS" "Assessing crossmodal correspondences for food products: Implications for product packaging and brand naming." "Carmen ADAMS, Wim JANSSENS, Jan VANRIE" "Crossmodal correspondences and interactions between texture and taste perception" "Johan Wagemans" "In recent years, awareness of the influence of different modalities on taste perception has grown. Although previous research in crossmodal taste perception has touched upon the bipolar distinction between softness/smoothness and roughness/angularity, ambiguity largely remains surrounding other crossmodal correspondences between taste and other specific textures we regularly use to describe our food, such as crispy or crunchy. Sweetness has previously been found to be associated with soft textures but our current understanding does not exceed the basic distinction made between roughness and smoothness. Specifically, the role of texture in taste perception remains relatively understudied. The current study consisted of two parts. First, because of the lack of clarity concerning specific associations between basic tastes and textures, an online questionnaire served to assess whether consistent associations between texture words and taste words exist and how these arise intuitively. The second part consisted of a taste experiment with factorial combinations of four tastes and four textures. The results of the questionnaire study showed that consistent associations are made between soft and sweet and between crispy and salty at the conceptual level. The results of the taste experiment largely showed evidence in support of these findings at the perceptual level. In addition, the experiment allowed for a closer look into the complexity found regarding the association between sour and crunchy, and bitter and sandy." "Exploiting Crossmodal Correspondences: Can the Perceived Shape of an Ambient Scent Influence the Perceived Shape of a Product, a Scene, or an Actual Space?" "Jan VANRIE, Carmen ADAMS" "Crossmodal correspondences refer to the tendency for features in one sensory modality to be matched or associated with sensory features in another sensory modality (Spence, 2012). For example, some scents are perceived as “round” (e.g., rose), while other scents are perceived as “angular” (e.g., rosemary). In a series of experiments, we 36 Perception 48(2S) investigated the role of ambient scents with different crossmodal correspondences when visually evaluating various types of meaningful stimuli. Specifically, we looked at whether the perceived shape in terms of “roundnessangularity” of environmental scents would alter the perceived shape of other stimuli present in this environment. In a first study, 99 participants evaluated angular and rounded versions of products, while in a second study, 96 participants evaluated two-dimensional renderings of rounded and angular interior environments. Finally, during these studies and one additional study (N ¼ 111), participants also evaluated the actual experimental room they were in. In all studies, participants were either in a situation with no added scent, a “round” or an “angular” ambient scent. Results suggest that environmental scents can indeed affect the perceived shape of other meaningful stimuli present, but also that this depends on both the type of stimulus and the specific task-induced mindset of observers." "The Effect of Crossmodal Congruency Between Ambient Scent and the Store Environment on Consumer Reactions: An Abstract" "Carmen ADAMS, Lieve DOUCE" "Ambient scents used by retailers should be pleasant and appropriate. This paper proposes that an ambient scent should also be crossmodally congruent with the store environment. Crossmodal congruency refers to the crossmodal correspondences (i.e., the tendency of one sensory attribute to be associated with an attribute in another sense) that are shared between the ambient scent and the store environment. In this study, a scent crossmodally congruent with the store, a scent crossmodally incongruent with the store and a no scent condition were compared. In order to determine the crossmodal congruency, an index of 11 bi-polar items (e.g., loud versus quiet) was applied to the perception of the store and of the ambient scent. The degree in which they differed resulted in either congruency or incongruency. Results revealed that crossmodal congruency between store and ambient scent leads to higher approach behavior. Furthermore, positive effects were found when comparing the congruent scent with the no scent condition on pleasure, store (environment) evaluation, and word-of-mouth. It is therefore proposed to include the crossmodal congruency between the ambient scent and the store environment as a criteria when selecting an ambient scent." "Crossmodal Congruency Between Background Music and the Online Store Environment: The Moderating Role of Shopping Goals" "Lieve DOUCE, Carmen ADAMS, Olivia Petit, Anton Nijholt" "Despite the robust evidence that congruent background music in the physical store environment positively affects consumer reactions, less is known about its effects in an online context. The present study aims (1) to examine whether congruency via multiple elicited crossmodal correspondences between background music and the online store environment (e.g., perceived lightness, loudness, and coldness of the cue/environment) leads to more positive affective, evaluative, and behavioral consumer reactions and (2) to investigate the moderating role of shopping goals on this crossmodal congruency effect. Previous research showed that low task-relevant atmospheric cues like music can have a negative effect on consumers when they visit a website with a purchase goal in mind. An online experiment was conducted with 239 respondents randomly assigned to a shopping goal (experiential browsing vs. goal-directed searching) and a music condition (no music, crossmodally congruent music, or crossmodally incongruent music). Our results show that crossmodally incongruent background music (vs. no music) leads to more positive consumer reactions for experiential browsers and more negative consumer reactions for goal-directed searchers. Conversely, crossmodally congruent background music (vs. no music) has a positive effect on experiential browsers and no adverse effect on goal-directed searchers. Additionally, the presence of crossmodally congruent background music leads to more positive consumer reactions than the presence of crossmodally incongruent background music, independent of the shopping goal. We extend previous research on multisensory congruency effects by showing the added value of establishing congruency between music and the store environment via multiple elicited crossmodal correspondences in the online environment, countering previously found negative effects of low-task relevant atmospheric cues for goal-directed searchers." "The effect of crossmodal congruency between ambient scent and the store environment on consumer reactions" "Carmen ADAMS, Lieve DOUCE" "Previous research found that ambient scents used by retailers should be pleasant and product congruent. This paper proposes that an ambient scent should also be crossmodally congruent with the store environment. Crossmodal congruency refers to the shared crossmodal correspondences (i.e., tendency of a sensory attribute to be associated with an attribute in another sense) of the ambient scent and the store environment. In this study, a scent crossmodally congruent with the store, a scent crossmodally incongruent with the store and a no scent condition were compared. Results revealed that crossmodal congruency between store and ambient scent leads to higher approach behaviour. Furthermore, positive effects were found when comparing the congruent scent with the no scent condition on pleasure, store (environment) evaluation, and word-of-mouth. It is therefore proposed to include crossmodal congruency between ambient scent and store environment as a criteria when selecting an ambient scent." "Editorial: Online sensory experiences: Consumer reactions to triggering multiple senses by using psychological techniques and sensory-enabling technologies" "Lieve DOUCE, Carmen ADAMS, Olivia Petit, Anton Nijholt" "What's in a scent? Meaning, shape, and sensorial concepts elicited by scents" "Carmen ADAMS, Lieve DOUCE" "When selecting an ambient scent to be diffused in a store, one can focus on pleasantness of the scent, congruency of the scent with product category, or a variety of concepts that can be the basis for congruency between scent and other atmospheric elements. However, more information is needed concerning the concepts from which congruency could be sought. This paper studies the strength and direction of 19 bipolar concepts related to meaning, perceived shape and sensory attributes elicited by 32 scents. Factor analysis indicates that the concepts can be grouped into four factors: an angelic, an energetic, a shape, and a depth factor. Cluster analysis indicates that the 32 scents can be grouped based on differences in strength as well as direction of the elicitations. The results indicate that certain concepts do co-occur and that a classification of scents based on their similar elicitations of concepts might be of value." "TASTE - Testing Auditory Solutions Towards the Improvement of the Tasting Experience" "Felipe Reinoso Carvalho, Raymond Van Ee, Abdellah Touhafi" "There is a common agreement among researchers about the involvement of multiple senses while taste is being perceived. Also, for restaurants, pubs and similar places there is growing awareness of the significance of the quality of the soundscape and its influence on taste. This project proposes to study the perceptual interaction of taste and audition in the context of the primal activity of feeding. Our aim is also to improve ambient auditory stimulation in psychophysical experiments on tasting experiences using state-of-the-art techniques in engineering acoustics."