ArticlePeerJ2016
The semantic basis of taste-shape associations.
Article in PeerJ, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Meanings of Synesthetic Metaphors Closely Align With Crossmodal Correspondences.Cognitive science · 2026Article
- The unity of sense and mind: A review of cross-domain mapping.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Review
- The diatonic sound of scent imagery.Perception · 2025Article
- Crossmodal correspondences between visual features and tastes in preschoolers: an exploratory study.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Influence of letter shape on readers' emotional experience, reading fluency, and text comprehension and memorisation.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Consumer Assessment of 3D-Printed Food Shape, Taste, and Fidelity Using Chocolate and Marzipan Materials.3D printing and additive manufacturing · 2022Article
- Why Taste Is Pharmacology.Handbook of experimental pharmacology · 2022Article
- Taste Metaphors Ground Emotion Concepts Through the Shared Attribute of Valence.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- People With High Autistic Traits Show Fewer Consensual Crossmodal Correspondences Between Visual Features and Tastes.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Wine psychology: basic & applied.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2020Review
- Heaviness-brightness correspondence and stimulus-response compatibility.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2020Article
- Assessing the Influence of Visual-Taste Congruency on Perceived Sweetness and Product Liking in Immersive VR.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Theoretical models of reaction times arising from simple-choice tasks.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2019Article
- Article
- Crossmodal correspondences between basic tastes and visual design features: A narrative historical review.i-PerceptionArticle
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Previous research shows that people systematically match tastes with shapes. Here, we assess the extent to which matched taste and shape stimuli share a common semantic space and whether semantically congruent versus incongruent taste/shape associations can influence the speed with which people respond to both shapes and taste words. In Experiment 1, semantic differentiation was used to assess the semantic space of both taste words and shapes. The results suggest a common semantic space containing two principal components (seemingly, intensity and hedonics) and two principal clusters, one including round shapes and the taste word "sweet," and the other including angular shapes and the taste words "salty," "sour," and "bitter." The former cluster appears more positively-valenced whilst less potent than the latter. In Experiment 2, two speeded classification tasks assessed whether congruent versus incongruent mappings of stimuli and responses (e.g., sweet with round versus sweet with angular) would influence the speed of participants' responding, to both shapes and taste words. The results revealed an overall effect of congruence with congruent trials yielding faster responses than their incongruent counterparts. These results are consistent with previous evidence suggesting a close relation (or crossmodal correspondence) between tastes and shape curvature that may derive from common semantic coding, perhaps along the intensity and hedonic dimensions.
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