Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
Chem Senses. 2012 Feb;37(2):151-8. doi: 10.1093/chemse/bjr085. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
Odors are notoriously difficult to describe, but they seem prone to a variety of crossmodal associations. In the present study, we generalize the previously-shown association between odors (from perfumery) and pitch (Belkin et al. 1997) to odors related to food and drink (in this case those associated with wine). We also demonstrate that, to a lesser extent (25% of the odor tested), participants preferentially match specific odors to certain types of instruments. The ratings of the odors along a number of dimensions are used in principal components analysis (PCA) to explore the psychological dimensions underlying the odor-pitch associations. The results demonstrate that both pleasantness and complexity, but not intensity, appear to play a role when choosing a pitch to match an odor. Our results suggest that these features of odor stimuli constitute psychological dimensions that can be consistently matched to auditory features.
气味很难描述，但它们似乎容易产生各种跨模态联想。在本研究中，我们将先前研究中气味（来自香水）与音高（Belkin 等人，1997）之间的关联推广到与食物和饮料相关的气味（在这种情况下，与葡萄酒相关的气味）。我们还证明，在较小程度上（测试的气味的 25%），参与者更倾向于将特定气味与某些类型的乐器相匹配。通过主成分分析（PCA）对沿多个维度的气味进行评分，以探索气味-音高关联背后的心理维度。结果表明，在选择与气味匹配的音高时，愉悦度和复杂度（而非强度）似乎都起作用。我们的结果表明，这些气味刺激的特征构成了可以与听觉特征一致匹配的心理维度。
