Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Crossmodal Associations Between Olfaction and Vision: Color and Shape Visualizations of Odors

  • Published:
Chemosensory Perception

Abstract

Introduction

In the present study, we assessed crossmodal associations between odors and both color and shape, with particular interest in the principles beneath these mappings. We hypothesized that visual associations of odors would primarily reflect observable features of a smelling object and thus vary with different source assumptions of the very same smell.

Methods

We asked 30 participants to visualize their odor associations on a drawing tablet, freely deciding on color and shape. Additionally, subjects provided ratings on perceptual and shape-related dimensions as well as a verbal label for each sample.

Results

With respect to color selection, the results confirmed a source-based mapping approach: odors rated as familiar were associated with very particular colors that typically resembled the appearance of their source. For less familiar odors, color selection was rather inconsistent but still then went along with assumed odor objects. Shape ratings changed with odor identifications as well, but considerably less than for color associations. Shape ratings and shape drawings produced very different results. While shape ratings were unlikely rooted in the mental imagery of a shape, drawings frequently displayed concrete objects that depended on odor label.

Conclusions

Results confirm the existence of stable odor–vision correspondences and suggest that language plays a major part in mediating these mappings. The frequently assumed hedonic foundation of crossmodal matchings could not be confirmed for this stimuli set.

Implications

Odor sensations may trigger odor naming spontaneously. Assumptions about an odor’s identity, as well as the multisensory knowledge we have acquired on it, affect the visual associations of an odor.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Blackwell L (1995) Visual cues and their effects on odour assessment. Nutr Food Sci 95:24–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cain WS (1979) To know with the nose: keys to odor identification. Science 203:467–470

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cain WS, Potts BC (1996) Switch and bait: probing the discriminative basis of odor identification via recognition memory. Chem Senses 21:35–44

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cain WS, de WR, Lulejian C, Schiet F, See L-C (1998) Odor identification: perceptual and semantic dimensions. Chem Senses 23:309–326

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Charney, S., Levitan, C.A., Palmer, S.E., &Schloss, K.B. (2015). The smell of jazz: crossmodal correspondences between music, odor, and emotion. CogSci

  • Chrea C, Valentin D, Sulmont-Rossé C, Ly Mai H, Hoang Nguyen D, Abdi H (2004) Culture and odor categorization: agreement between cultures depends upon the odors. Food Qual Prefer 15:669–679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collier GL (1996) Affective synesthesia: extracting emotion space from simple perceptual stimuli. Motiv Emot 20:1–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crisinel A-S, Jacquier C, Deroy O, Spence C (2013) Composing with cross-modal correspondences: music and odors in concert. Chem Percept. 6:45–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crisinel A-S, Jones S, Spence C (2012) ‘The sweet taste of maluma’: crossmodal associations between tastes and words. Chem Percept. 5:266–273

    Google Scholar 

  • Crisinel A-S, Spence C (2010) As bitter as a trombone: synesthetic correspondences in nonsynesthetes between tastes/flavors and musical notes. Atten Percept Psychophys. 72:1994–2002

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dematte ML, Sanabria D, Spence C (2006) Cross-modal associations between odors and colors. Chem Senses 31:531–538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deroy O, Crisinel A-S, Spence C (2013) Crossmodal correspondences between odors and contingent features: odors, musical notes, and geometrical shapes. Psychon Bull Rev 20:878–896

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Desor JA, Beauchamp GK (1974) The human capacity to transmit olfactory information. Percept Psychophys 16:551–556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubois D, Rouby C (2002) Names and categories for odors: the veridical label. In: Rouby C, Schaal B, Dubois D, Gervais R, Holley A (eds) Olfaction, taste, and cognition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (GB), pp 47–66

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Engen T (1972) The effect of expectation on judgments of odor. Acta Psychol 36:450–458

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferdenzi C, Roberts SC, Schirmer A, Delplanque S, Cekic S, Porcherot C, Cayeux I, Sander D, Grandjean D (2013) Variability of affective responses to odors: culture, gender, and olfactory knowledge. Chem Senses 38:175–186

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fiore AM (1993) Multisensory integration of visual, tactile, and olfactory aesthetic cues of appearance. Cloth Textiles Res J 11:45–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert AN, Martin R, Kemp SE (1996) Cross-modal correspondence between vision and olfaction: the color of smells. Am J Psychol 109:335–351

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hanson-Vaux G, Crisinel A-S, Spence C (2013) Smelling shapes: crossmodal correspondences between odors and shapes. Chem Senses 38:161–166

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jacquot M, Noel F, Velasco C, Spence C (2016) On the colours of odours. Chem Percept. 9:79–93

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaeppler K, Mueller F (2013) Odor classification: a review of factors influencing perception-based odor arrangements. Chem Senses 38:189–209

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp SE, Gilbert AN (1997) Odor intensity and color lightness are correlated sensory dimensions. Am J Psychol 110:35–46

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Knöferle K, Spence C (2012) Crossmodal correspondences between sounds and tastes. Psychon Bull Rev 19:992–1006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lavin JG, Lawless HT (1998) Effects of color and odor on judgments of sweetness among children and adults. Food Qual Prefer 9:283–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitan CA, Ren J, Woods AT, Boesveldt S, Chan JS, McKenzie KJ, Dodson M, Levin JA, Leong CXR, van den Bosch JJF (2014) Cross-cultural color-odor associations. PLoS One 9:e101651

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Majid A (2015) Cultural factors shape olfactory language. Trends Cogn Sci 19:629–630

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Majid A, Burenhult N (2014) Odors are expressible in language, as long as you speak the right language. Cognition 130:266–270

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maric Y, Jacquot M (2013) Contribution to understanding odour–colour associations. Food Qual Prefer 27:191–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marks LE (1996) On perceptual metaphors. Metaphor Symb Act 11:39–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marks LE (2004) Cross-modal interactions in speeded classification. In: Calvert GA, Spence C, Stein BE (eds) Handbook of multisensory processes. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), pp 85–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Martino G, Marks LE (2000) Cross-modal interaction between vision and touch: the role of synesthetic correspondence. Perception 29:745–754

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Martino G, Marks LE (2001) Synesthesia: strong and weak. Curr Direct Psychol Sci 10:61–65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrot G, Brochet F, Dubourdieu D (2001) The color of odors. Brain Lang 79:309–320

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nehmé L, Barbar R, Maric Y, Jacquot M (2016) Influence of odor function and color symbolism in odor–color associations: a French–Lebanese–Taiwanese cross-cultural study. Food Qual Prefer 49:33–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olofsson JK (2014) Time to smell: a cascade model of human olfactory perception based on response-time (RT) measurement. Front Psychol 5:33

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Olofsson JK, Bowman NE, Gottfried JA (2013) High and low roads to odor valence? A choice response-time study. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 39:1205–1211

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Olofsson JK, Gottfried JA (2015) The muted sense: neurocognitive limitations of olfactory language. Trends Cogn Sci 19:314–321

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Österbauer RA, Matthews PM, Jenkinson M, Beckmann CF, Hansen PC, Calvert GA (2005) Color of scents: chromatic stimuli modulate odor responses in the human brain. J Neurophysiol 93:3434–3441

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pauli P, Bourne LE, Diekmann H, Birbaumer N (1999) Cross-modality priming between odors and odor-congruent words. Am J Psychol 112:175–186

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sakai N (2005) The effect of visual images on perception of odors. Chem Senses 30:i244–i245

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schifferstein HNJ, Tanudjaja I (2004) Visualising fragrances through colours: the mediating role of emotions. Perception 33:1249–1266

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seo H-S, Arshamian A, Schemmer K, Scheer I, Sander T, Ritter G, Hummel T (2010) Cross-modal integration between odors and abstract symbols. Neurosci Lett 478:175–178

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spector F, Maurer D (2012) Making sense of scents the colour and texture of odours. Seeing Perceiving 25:655–677

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spence C (2011) Crossmodal correspondences: a tutorial review. Atten Percept Psychophys 73:971–995

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spence C, Deroy O (2013) How automatic are crossmodal correspondences? Conscious Cogn 22:245–260

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spence C, Wan X, Woods A, Velasco C, Deng J, Youssef J, Deroy O (2015) On tasty colours and colourful tastes? Assessing, explaining, and utilizing crossmodal correspondences between colours and basic tastes. Flavour 4:70

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson RJ, Rich A, Russell A (2012) The nature and origin of cross-modal associations to odours. Perception 41:606–619

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Streeter NL, White TL (2011) Incongruent contextual information intrudes on short-term olfactory memory. Chem Percept 4:1–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Valk JM, Wnuk E, Huisman JLA, Majid A (2016) Odor-color associations differ with verbal descriptors for odors: a comparison of three linguistically diverse groups. Psychon Bull Rev:1–9

  • de Wijk RA, Cain WS (1994) Odor quality: discrimination versus free and cued identification. Percept Psychophys 56:12–18

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zellner DA (2013) Color–odor interactions areview and model. Chem Percept. 6:155–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zellner DA, Bartoli AM, Eckard R (1991) Influence of color on odor identification and liking ratings. Am J Psychol 104:547–561

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zellner DA, Kautz MA (1990) Color affects perceived odor intensity. J Exp Psychol Human Percept 16:391–397

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zellner DA, McGarry A, Mattern-McClory R, Abreu D (2008) Masculinity/femininity of fine fragrances affects color-odor correspondences: acase for cognitions influencing cross-modal correspondences. Chem Senses 33:211–222

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zellner DA, Whitten LA (1999) The effect of color intensity and appropriateness on color-induced odor enhancement. Am J Psychol 112:585–604

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Experimental Business Psychology, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Wilschenbrucher Weg 84a, 21335, Lueneburg, Germany

    Kathrin Kaeppler

Authors
  1. Kathrin Kaeppler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathrin Kaeppler.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki—Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and approved by the Ethics Committee of Leuphana University Lueneburg.

Informed Consent

Participants provided informed consent about being tested.

Electronic Supplementary Material

ESM 1

(PDF 3.53 mb)

ESM 2

(PDF 99 kb)

ESM 3

(PDF 95.2 kb)

ESM 4

(PDF 88.6 kb)

ESM 5

(PDF 62.1 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kaeppler, K. Crossmodal Associations Between Olfaction and Vision: Color and Shape Visualizations of Odors. Chem. Percept. 11, 95–111 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-018-9245-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-018-9245-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation