Publicação
The Influence of Music on the Perception of Taste
| Resumo: | The food experience is one of the most multisensory experiences. The background soundscapes, and particularly music, can influence not only behaviour and choices, but also the sensory perception, either discriminative or hedonic, of a food experience. The auditory properties of a musical piece could be matched in a congruent manner with the basic tastes, affecting the way consumers perceive, respond and remember the sensory attributes and the overall experience. Based on this premise, the present study was developed in order to extend the understanding of crossmodal interactions between gustatory and auditory stimuli. Concretely, it was intended to investigate the influence of background music on the tasting experience, namely on basic tastes and texture perception. For this purpose, two musical pieces were selected to match with sweet and sour basic tastes, taking into consideration their auditory characteristics. The gustatory stimulus chosen was a dessert (passion fruit mousse) with these two basic tastes. The sensory tests were performed immediately after basic tastes recognition tests and familiarization with the scale. Each participant experienced three different conditions, in different orders: i) control, where the dessert was tasted in silence; ii) experience A, where participants tasted the same dessert while listening a sweet musical piece that expectably would enhance sweet taste of it and iii) experience B, where participants tasted the same dessert while listening a sour musical piece that expectably would enhance sour taste of it. The results show that the same dessert was not perceived exactly in the same way when participants were exposed to different music stimulus, what can corroborate by itself the music’s influence on tasting experience. Moreover, it was verified that crossmodal correspondences between music and taste were stronger regarding sour taste where a significant effect was observed. Sweet music, by contrast, did not enhance the sweet taste of the dessert. However, it decreased the intensity of sour taste in the dessert what could suggest a different approach to crossmodal correspondences between music and taste. These findings can be very helpful on design and building of new multisensory gastronomic experiences, applied by food businesses and restaurant entrepreneurs to enhance consumers’ experience. |
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| Autores principais: | Campinho, Joana da Silva |
| Assunto: | Gastrophysics Multisensory experience Crossmodal correspondences Perception Music Taste |
| Ano: | 2018 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade Nova de Lisboa |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório Institucional da UNL |
| Resumo: | The food experience is one of the most multisensory experiences. The background soundscapes, and particularly music, can influence not only behaviour and choices, but also the sensory perception, either discriminative or hedonic, of a food experience. The auditory properties of a musical piece could be matched in a congruent manner with the basic tastes, affecting the way consumers perceive, respond and remember the sensory attributes and the overall experience. Based on this premise, the present study was developed in order to extend the understanding of crossmodal interactions between gustatory and auditory stimuli. Concretely, it was intended to investigate the influence of background music on the tasting experience, namely on basic tastes and texture perception. For this purpose, two musical pieces were selected to match with sweet and sour basic tastes, taking into consideration their auditory characteristics. The gustatory stimulus chosen was a dessert (passion fruit mousse) with these two basic tastes. The sensory tests were performed immediately after basic tastes recognition tests and familiarization with the scale. Each participant experienced three different conditions, in different orders: i) control, where the dessert was tasted in silence; ii) experience A, where participants tasted the same dessert while listening a sweet musical piece that expectably would enhance sweet taste of it and iii) experience B, where participants tasted the same dessert while listening a sour musical piece that expectably would enhance sour taste of it. The results show that the same dessert was not perceived exactly in the same way when participants were exposed to different music stimulus, what can corroborate by itself the music’s influence on tasting experience. Moreover, it was verified that crossmodal correspondences between music and taste were stronger regarding sour taste where a significant effect was observed. Sweet music, by contrast, did not enhance the sweet taste of the dessert. However, it decreased the intensity of sour taste in the dessert what could suggest a different approach to crossmodal correspondences between music and taste. These findings can be very helpful on design and building of new multisensory gastronomic experiences, applied by food businesses and restaurant entrepreneurs to enhance consumers’ experience. |
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