Cross-Modal Interactions Between Olfaction and Touch

Abstract

We report two experiments designed to investigate the nature of any cross-modal interactions between olfactory and tactile information processing. In Experiment 1, we assessed the influence of olfactory cues on the tactile perception of fabric softness using computer-controlled stimulus presentation. The results showed that participants rated fabric swatches as feeling significantly softer when presented with a lemon odor than when presented with an animal-like odor, demonstrating that olfactory cues can modulate tactile perception. In Experiment 2, we assessed whether this modulatory effect varied as a function of the particular odors being used and/or of the spatial coincidence between the olfactory and tactile stimuli. The results replicated those reported in Experiment 1 thus further supporting the claim that people's rating of tactile stimuli can be modulated by the presence of an odor. Taken together, the results of the two experiments reported here support the existence of a cross-modal interaction between olfaction and touch.

Influence of the presence and type of fragrance on the sensory perception of cosmetic formulations

“…The fragrance-free cream formulation was also considered the greasiest among the cream formulations according to ten testers. These results corroborated those of Dermatte et al (2006) who correlated the sense of touch with the sense of smell and demonstrated the existence of a cross-modal interaction between olfaction and touch. These authors also mentioned that there were effects exerted by stimuli presented in one sensory modality on people's responses to stimuli presented in another modality could be due to a process of associative learning.…”

Emotional Responses to Multisensory Environmental Stimuli

“…However, it is evident from gestalt principles that the sensory input from the environment is not simply perceived as the sum of its individual components, but rather as a whole (Lin, 2004). Experiments conducted in laboratory settings show that there is a broad spectrum of non-linear interactions between all sensory modalities (Bresciani et al, 2005;Demattè, Sanabria, Sugarman, & Spence, 2006;Driver & Noesselt, 2008;Seigneuric, Durand, Jiang, Baudouin, & Schaal, 2010;Shimojo & Shams, 2001;Small, 2004;Thesen, Vibell, Calvert, & Österbauer, 2004). This means that when cues from different sensory modalities are integrated, the result is not a simple accumulation of the effects generated by each modality separately.…”

Conquering new frontiers in research on store atmospheres: Kinetic and synesthetic qualities

“…14 In other, yet highly relevant research fields, the examination of synesthetic characters has recently attracted attention under the label of crossmodal correspondence, for example the crossmodal correspondence between olfaction and touch (Demattè, Sanabria, Sugarman et al, 2006), odors and music (Crisinel & Spence, 2012), odors and shape (Hanson-Vaux, Crisinel & Spence, 2013) or taste and music (Crisinel, Cosser, King et al, 2012). Other terms to refer to similar phenomena include synaesthetic correspondences, synaesthetic associations, crossmodal equivalences, crossmodal similarities, and natural crossmodal mappings (Spence, 2011).…”