On the taste of “Bouba” and “Kiki”: An exploration of word–food associations in neurologically normal participants

Abstract

We investigated whether there are reliable crossmodal associations between foods/flavours and words in neurologically normal individuals. Participants were given a range of foods to taste, and had to rate each one along a number of dimensions. These included scales anchored with the words “takete/maluma” and “bouba/kiki”. The results highlight the existence of robust crossmodal associations between complex foods/flavours and words in normal (i.e., nonsynesthetic) individuals. For example, crisps (potato chips) and cranberry sauce are rated as being more “takete” than brie cheese, while mint chocolate is rated as more “kiki” than regular chocolate. On the basis of these results, we suggest that our brains can extract supramodal/conceptual properties from foods/flavours (just as has been demonstrated previously using auditory and visual stimuli) and meaningfully match them crossmodally. The possibility that this process is based on the global Gestalt of a food rather than on any specific sensory qualities is also discussed.

Keywords:

• Synaesthesia
• Taste
• Perception
• Gestalt
• Food

Acknowledgments

AG is supported by a MIUR PRIN 07 grant.

Notes

¹The word “synesthesia” has been used to describe the phenomenon whereby individuals who, when presented with a specific stimulus ‘in’ one sensory modality, report an additional sensory experience (in either the same or a different sensory modality) that is not experienced by nonsynesthetes (e.g., Marks, 1975). The expressions “synesthetic associations” and “synesthetic correspondences” are often used to describe certain congruency effects due to the presentation of a stimulus from a certain sensory modality on the processing of stimuli presented from another sensory modality (e.g., Gallace & Spence, 2006; Martino & Marks, 2000; Melara & O'Brien, 1987; Parise & Spence, 2009). These congruency effects are thought to be based on some sort of “similarities” between the two senses. The expressions are used regardless of whether the participants tested are synesthetes or neurologically normal individuals. Moreover, it has been suggested that these correspondences on the part of both synesthetic and nonsynesthetic individuals might be based on the same underlying neurocognitive mechanisms (see, e.g., Karwoski & Odbert, 1938; Ward, Huckstep, & Tsakanikos, 2006).