The integration of visual and oral somatosensory information How color intensity impacts texture expectations and perceptions of food products

Visual information may substantially impact sensory perception. Neuroscientific findings indicate that particularly color may contribute to the perception of oral somatosensory experiences. However, crossmodal interactions between color and texture, as well as effects of these interactions on texture perceptions in the oral cavity have so far been targeted only scarcely. Thus, we examine the effects of color intensity on texture expectations and texture perception.
For sensory testing, two types of colored pudding samples were produced through the addition of colorants, while all other sensory properties remained unaffected. A triangle test (n = 32) was employed to ensure that the manipulations were unambiguous and recognizable. A highly significant difference in color intensity between the samples was detected, wherefore the intended manipulation of the stimuli was established. The main study (n = 249, age: M = 24.04) was planned and analyzed as a 2 (PRAE vs POST) × 2 (BRIGHT vs DARK) × 2 (3° C vs 9° C) three factorial mixed ANOVA with color intensity and serving temperature serving as between-subject factors and the evaluation of texture attributes of the samples before and after tasting as the within-subject variable. For creaminess there was a trend that the subjects valued the dark samples creamier than the bright samples (F(1,245) = 3.85; p = .05), both regarding expectations and perceptions. Also, the bright probes were rated significantly thicker than the dark samples (F(1,245) = 8.45; p < .05).
Thus, our results provide some first empirical evidence of effects of color intensity on expected and perceived oral somatosensory experiences. The present work entails scientific as well as managerial implications, as our findings may be transferred to product development (and hence, the attunement of product’s intrinsic properties), but may also be considered when designing extrinsic cues, such as product packages.