Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University Beijing, China.
Xperiment, Lausanne Switzerland.
Front Psychol. 2014 Dec 8;5:1365. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01365. eCollection 2014.
We report a cross-cultural study designed to investigate crossmodal correspondences between a variety of visual features (11 colors, 15 shapes, and 2 textures) and the five basic taste terms (bitter, salty, sour, sweet, and umami). A total of 452 participants from China, India, Malaysia, and the USA viewed color patches, shapes, and textures online and had to choose the taste term that best matched the image and then rate their confidence in their choice. Across the four groups of participants, the results revealed a number of crossmodal correspondences between certain colors/shapes and bitter, sour, and sweet tastes. Crossmodal correspondences were also documented between the color white and smooth/rough textures on the one hand and the salt taste on the other. Cross-cultural differences were observed in the correspondences between certain colors, shapes, and one of the textures and the taste terms. The taste-patterns shown by the participants from the four countries tested in the present study are quite different from one another, and these differences cannot easily be attributed merely to whether a country is Eastern or Western. These findings therefore highlight the impact of cultural background on crossmodal correspondences. As such, they raise a number of interesting questions regarding the neural mechanisms underlying crossmodal correspondences.
我们报告了一项跨文化研究，旨在调查各种视觉特征（11 种颜色、15 种形状和 2 种质地）与五种基本味觉术语（苦、咸、酸、甜、鲜）之间的跨模态对应关系。共有来自中国、印度、马来西亚和美国的 452 名参与者在线观看颜色斑块、形状和质地，并选择最能匹配图像的味觉术语，然后对他们的选择信心进行评分。在这四个组的参与者中，结果揭示了某些颜色/形状与苦、酸和甜味觉之间的一些跨模态对应关系。还记录了颜色白色与平滑/粗糙质地之间的跨模态对应关系与盐味之间的对应关系。在某些颜色、形状和一种质地与味觉术语之间，观察到了跨文化差异。本研究测试的来自四个国家的参与者所表现出的味觉模式彼此非常不同，这些差异不能仅仅归因于一个国家是东方还是西方。这些发现因此强调了文化背景对跨模态对应关系的影响。因此，它们提出了一些关于跨模态对应关系背后的神经机制的有趣问题。
