Implicit association between basic tastes and pitch

Our evaluation of food is influenced by a variety of contextual information perceived via the senses. Here we investigated whether there are interactions between auditory stimuli and basic tastes (indicated by the names of typically sour and bitter foods). Participants took part in a version of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) in order to measure the strength of the association between high-pitched sounds and (the names of) foodstuffs having a sour taste, and between low-pitched sounds and (the names of) foodstuffs having a bitter taste. Analysis of the latency and accuracy of participants' responses highlighted the existence of a significant crossmodal association between these different attributes. This result suggests the need for research into the influence of auditory stimuli on food evaluation, an interaction that has typically been overlooked when considering the multisensory perception of food. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.