In our everyday experience, our senses are always bombarded with a diverse spectrum of color. We might not always appreciate the importance of color even though it is literally everywhere. Aside from that, we might not often consciously realize that one of the first stimuli that we encounter when we eat food is its color. It basically provides us the information about the probable gustatory and olfactory experience that we would have (Zellner & Klautz, 1990).
In relation to that, let's use our imagination for this scene. Our eyes are closed, relishing the comfort of an activity what we would want to refer to as a 'nap.' Then for a moment, we smell something that tickles our senses-- mainly our olfactory sense. The wafting scent is similar to that of an apple pie's. So we pictured an image of an apple pie. By recollection, we can associate its scent to the color of the apple, which is red. This association of colors to the scent that is exposed to us almost happens instantaneously as we are exposed to the variety of food that we would very much likely to dig in.
Demattè, Sanabria, & Spence (2006) have demonstrated how association between food and color occurs. Odorants such as caramel, cucumber, leather lemon, spearmint, and strawberry were used in the experiment. All of which are diluted with 10 diethyl pthalate. The participants were instructed to choose the color (among the randomized color patches that are displayed on the screen) which closely resembles the odor that were presented to them by clicking the left side of the pc mouse that was provided. The results of their study have made it apparent that there is a significant association at least one color to specific odors. For instance, when they presented the cucumber odorant, msot of the responses that they got was that it is closely associated with the green color. Nevertheless, there are still odors in which the colors associated were too many to be consistent. During the presentation of the leather odorant, participants chose brown, gray or green. The experimenters have also seen that there is also some inconsistencies in the color-odor correspondence. For example, the respondents chose the color pink to best represent the odor of strawberry even thought the true color of strawberry is red. The researchers attributed this association to the color of common snacks available almost everywhere (e.g. yogurt, milkshake, lollipop).
Now you can imagine that you have opened your eyes. After indulging yourself with the lip-smacking odor that you have just smelled, you now turn to your side and decide to walk towards the kitchen. You see your mom have just finished preparing her cup of coffee. And upon the mere sight of it, you instantly grimaced. The coffee’s color is a high intensity of black and it already makes you want to puke. Why could this be happening?
There is an increase perception of a flavor’s intensity when the color’s intensity is increased. According to DuBose et al. (1980) as cited by Zellner and Klautz (1990), olfactory cues are more greatly influenced by color as compared to gustatory cues because of the fact that flavor is largely odor.
We can now see how our experience and memory can play a huge role in our tendency to link food to a particular color. When we are greatly exposed to a food that has a consistent color, we store this information and this information would be added to our knowledge that we can use anytime that it is needed. We have also learned that the perceived intensity of flavor is directly proportional to the color intensity of the food. As always, experience-dependent plasticity could explain almost everything that is related to our senses—including this correspondence between color and odor and flavor perception.
REFERENCES:
DuBose, C. N., Cardello, A. V., & Mailer, O. (1980). Effects of colorants and flavorants on identification, perceived flavor intensity, and hedonic quality of fruit-flavored beverages and cake. Journal of Food Science, 45, 1393-1399.
Demattè, L.M., Sanabria, D., & Spence, C. (2006). Cross-modal associations between odors and colors. Chemical Senses, 31, 531–538.
Zellner, D. A. & Kautz, M. A. (1990). Color Affects Perceived Odor Intensity. Human Perception and Performance, 2, 391-397.
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