Seeing sweet and choosing sour: Compensatory effects of typeface on consumers’ choice behavior

The present research included two field studies investigating, firstly, the effects of round and angular typefaces on taste expectations and, secondly, how such expectations may have downstream effects on naturalistic consumer choice. A taste experiment conducted at a science festival asked participants (N = 125) to rate the expected and actual sweetness and sourness of beer served from plastic cups labelled with either angular or round typeface. Effects of typeface were found on both taste expectations and perceived taste, but in opposite directions; participants rated the expected sourness of a beer as higher in the round (vs. angular) typeface condition, whereas they rated perceived sourness as lower in the round compared to the angular typeface condition. A follow-up field study conducted at a beer bar tested whether different typefaces on a beer board would affect actual beer choices. Data consisted of beer transactions (N = 1,952) and included the monetary amount, and the specific style, and size of beer purchased. The results showed that average transaction amount was lower in the round (vs. angular) typeface condition, and that customers purchased more sour beer options in this condition. These findings support a crossmodal compensation account, and suggest that round typefaces could increase choices of contrasting sour products. Hence, marketers may want to consider how typefaces can either enhance or diminish certain tastes.     

Colour-odour correspondences in women during the menstrual cycle: Comparative analysis between the menstrual and ovulation phases

Women might experience modulation in their perception and cognition of colours and odours during the menstrual cycle, but how women's impressions of and correspondence between colours and odours differ according to the cycle changes remains unknown. Here, we experimentally examined women's performance of several tasks, including evaluation of impressions of colours and odours, matching/nonmatching of colours with odours, and identification of odours, comparing two phases: the beginning of menstruation and ovulation. The results showed that participants had similar impressions of colours and odours and made similar colour choices for odours in both the menstrual and ovulation phases, while “pleasant-unpleasant” impressions of colour and odour might vary according to the menstrual cycle. We found no significant differences in odour identification between the phases. The findings imply that hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle might affect “pleasant-unpleasant” impressions of colour and odour but not other features regarding impressions or crossmodal correspondence. In future studies, examination with a large number of participants is necessary.     

Assessing the expectations associated with pharmaceutical pill colour and shape

Two experiments are reported in which people’s sensory, hedonic, and efficacy expectations associated with pharmaceutical pills of differing colour and shape were assessed. In Experiment 1, 101 participants from the USA viewed online photos of tablets having one of 7 colours and 3 shapes. The participants had to arrange the 21 tablets based on the expectations generated solely by the tablets’ visual properties. The results revealed that the colour of the tablets influenced expected bitterness, expected alertness, and expected efficiency in combating headaches, whereas the shape of the tablets influenced the expected difficulty of swallowing. In Experiment 2, the major findings of Experiment 1 were replicated while using a greater variety of colours, in 358 participants from China, Colombia, and the USA. Importantly, the results revealed some shared expectations across cultures, such as the high expected efficacy of white tablets in combating headaches, or the high expected difficulty of swallowing the diamond-shaped tablets. The results also revealed some differences among the three groups, such as that the colour of the pills influenced how difficult the Chinese participants (but not the other two groups) expected the pills would be to swallow. These findings clearly demonstrate that the differing colours and shapes of pharmaceutical pills set-up significantly different expectations which likely play an important role in terms of people’s subsequent experience.     

The influence of taste-congruent soundtracks on visual attention and food choice: A cross-cultural eye-tracking study in Chinese and Danish consumers

Sound can have a profound impact on our eating experience and behavior. The term “sonic seasoning”, arising from crossmodal correspondences, denotes the tendency for soundtracks with congruent taste/flavor attributes to alter people’s food perception. However, the implicit behavior effects of such sound-taste correspondence have not yet been tested. Employing eye-tracking technology, the current study explored the influence of custom-composed taste-congruent soundtracks on visual attention to food, and how this audio-visual relationship differs across cultures. Seventy-two participants (37 Chinese; 35 Danish) were each exposed to three sound conditions (“sweet music”, “salty music”, no music) while observing different food items in a choice paradigm. Across both cultures, participants spent more time fixating on sweet food while listening to “sweet music” and salty food when listening to “salty music”, while no differences were observed in the no music condition. Danish participants had, regardless of sound condition, longer fixation times on the food images compared to their Chinese counterparts. Participants’ choices in each sound condition were consistent with fixation time spent, implying a clear congruency effect between music and choice behavior. Our findings provide evidence of how specifically tailored music can guide consumers’ visual attention to specific food items, suggesting that the brain indeed integrates multiple streams of sensory information during decision-making. The cross-cultural aspect of our study can ultimately be valuable for understanding auditory nudging in different market segments.     

Hedonic mediation of the crossmodal correspondence between taste and shape

Crossmodal correspondences between gustatory (taste), olfactory (smell), and flavour stimuli on the one hand and visual attributes on the other have been extensively documented in recent years. For instance, people have been shown to consistently match specific tastes and flavours to particular visual shapes. That said, further research is still needed in order to clarify how and why such correspondences exist. Here, we report a series of four experiments designed to assess what drives people’s matching of visual roundness/angularity to both ‘basic’ taste names and actual tastants. In Experiment 1, crossmodal correspondences between taste names and abstract shapes were assessed. Next, the results were replicated in a larger online study (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 assessed the role of liking in the association between taste words and morphed shapes along the roundness/angularity dimension. In Experiment 4, basic tastants were mapped to the roundness/angularity dimension, while the mediating role of liking for each taste was assessed. Across the 4 experiments, participants consistently matched sweetness to roundness. What is more, people’s liking for a taste (but not their liking for imagined tastes) appeared to influence their shape matching responses. These results are discussed in terms of crossmodal correspondences, and a potential role for hedonics is outlined.     

Audiovisual bounce-inducing effect: Attention alone does not explain why the discs are bouncing.

Two discs moving from opposite points in space, overlapping and stopping at the other disc's starting point, can be seen as either bouncing or streaming through each other. With silent displays, observers report the discs as streaming, whereas if a sound is played when the discs touch each other, observers report the discs as bouncing. The origin of the switch from streaming to bouncing response is not known yet. The sound either shifts perception toward that of an impact-elastic event (i.e., a bounce) or subtracts the attention that is necessary to perceive the discs as streaming. We used either impact-similar (abrupt amplitude attack, gradual decay) or impact-dissimilar sounds (gradual amplitude attack, abrupt decay) and found that the first sounds induce the bouncing response, whereas the latter, although as distracting as the first, render streaming and bouncing responses equally frequent at most. We interpret the audiovisual bouncing effect as resulting from attention subtraction, which raises the number of bounce responses in comparison with silent displays, and from perception, which further increments the number of bounce responses and turns the response into a strong bounce response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does the weight of the dish influence our perception of food?

In many categories, weight has been found to influence how users perceive and appraise products. However, to date, the influence of the weight of the dish in which food is served on people’s perception has not been studied empirically. This exploratory study was therefore designed to investigate whether the weight of the container would exert a significant influence on people’s sensory and hedonic responses to the food consumed from it. Three bowls, identical except for the fact that they were different weights, were filled with exactly the same yoghurt. Consumers evaluated the yoghurt samples from the three bowls holding them with one hand, one at a time. Participants rated flavor intensity, density, price expectation, and liking using 9-point likert scales. Significant effects were found for all attributes except for flavor intensity. The effects on both density and price expectation ratings were highly significant.These findings are potentially relevant for designers and those working in restaurants, the hospitality sector, and food production, since the design and choice of dishes (or packages) of various weights could potentially be used to help enhance and/or modify the way in which consumers perceive and experience the food consumed from them.     

3D fingerprint reconstruction system using feature correspondences and prior estimated finger model

The paper studies a 3D fingerprint reconstruction technique based on multi-view touchless fingerprint images. This technique offers a solution for 3D fingerprint image generation and application when only multi-view 2D images are available. However, the difficulties and stresses of 3D fingerprint reconstruction are the establishment of feature correspondences based on 2D touchless fingerprint images and the estimation of the finger shape model. In this paper, several popular used features, such as scale invariant feature transformation (SIFT) feature, ridge feature and minutiae, are employed for correspondences establishment. To extract these fingerprint features accurately, an improved fingerprint enhancement method has been proposed by polishing orientation and ridge frequency maps according to the characteristics of 2D touchless fingerprint images. Therefore, correspondences can be established by adopting hierarchical fingerprint matching approaches. Through an analysis of 440 3D point cloud finger data (220 fingers, 2 pictures each) collected by a 3D scanning technique, i.e., the structured light illumination (SLI) method, the finger shape model is estimated. It is found that the binary quadratic function is more suitable for the finger shape model than the other mixed model tested in this paper. In our experiments, the reconstruction accuracy is illustrated by constructing a cylinder. Furthermore, results obtained from different fingerprint feature correspondences are analyzed and compared to show which features are more suitable for 3D fingerprint images generation.     

3D Motion Estimation and Motion Fusion by Affine Region Matching

In this paper,a new method is presented for 3D motion estimation by image region correspondences using stereo cameras.Under the weak perspectivity assumption.we first employ the moment tensor theory (Cyganski and Orr^[11]) to compute the monocular affine transformations relating images taken by the same camera at different time instants and the binocular affine transformations relating images taken by different cameras at the same time instant.We then show that 3D motion can be recovered from these 2D transformations.A space-time fusion strategy is proposed to aim at robust results.No knowledge of point correspondences if requred in the above processes and the computations involved are linear.To find corresponding image regions,new affine invariants,which show stronger invariance,are derived in term of tensor contraction theory.Experiments on real motion images are conducted to verify the proposed method.     

基于透视和正投影图像的3D运动与结构恢复

论文首次研究了由一幅正投影图像和一幅透视投影图像的特征点对应来进行刚体3D运动重建与结构恢复的问题,给出了有效的线性算法。以往的由运动恢复结构的工作主要集中于一组透视图像或一组正投影(通常为仿射)图像,文中采用了透视模型和正投影模型的组合。数据模拟实验结果显示该方法是比较有效和稳定的。