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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 14, 2026

New Methods to Study Gustatory Coding

New Methods to Study Gustatory Coding

Published on: June 29, 2017

Using Single Colors and Color Pairs to Communicate Basic Tastes.

Andy T Woods¹, Charles Spence¹

¹Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Oxford University, UK.

|October 5, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

People link basic tastes like sweet and sour to specific colors. While color pairs can convey taste information better than single colors, matching them takes longer.

Keywords:

basic tastes color crossmodal correspondences synesthesia

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Last Updated: Mar 14, 2026

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Psychophysical Tracking Method to Measure Taste Preferences in Children and Adults

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Published on: July 16, 2016

Area of Science:

Psychology
Sensory Science
Crossmodal Perception

Background:

Previous research shows consistent associations between basic tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salty) and specific colors (red, green, black, white).
These findings highlight a robust crossmodal correspondence between individual colors and taste perception.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if pairs of colors associated with the same taste enhance taste-color associations compared to pairs linked to different tastes.
To determine if combined color cues provide more consistent taste information than single color cues.

Main Methods:

Replication of previous studies on individual color-taste associations.
Experimental design to compare taste information conveyed by single colors versus color pairs.
Measurement of participant response times for matching colors to tastes.

Main Results:

Confirmed the existence of a strong crossmodal correspondence between individual colors and basic tastes.
Found evidence that color pairs can communicate taste information more consistently than single colors.
Observed that participants took more than twice as long to match taste concepts with color pairs compared to single colors.

Conclusions:

Color-taste associations are robust and can be enhanced by using paired colors.
Increased complexity in color cues (pairs vs. single) leads to slower cognitive processing for taste matching.
Further research is needed to explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying these crossmodal correspondences and processing times.