Infant visual preference for fruit enhanced by congruent in-season odor

Yuji Wada*, Yuna Inada, Jiale Yang, Satomi Kunieda, Tomohiro Masuda, Atsushi Kimura, So Kanazawa, Masami K. Yamaguchi

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

We explored the ability of infants to recognize the smell of daily foods, including strawberries and tomatoes, by using a preferential-looking-technique. Experiment 1 was conducted while strawberries were in season (from March to June) in order to enhance the frequency of participant exposure to strawberries outside of the laboratory. Thirty-seven infants aged 6-8. months were tested with a stimulus composed of a pair of photos of strawberries and tomatoes placed side by side and accompanied by a strawberry odor, a tomato odor, or no odors. Infants showed a preference for the strawberry picture when they smelled the congruent odor, but no such preference for the tomato picture. These results suggest that even young infants can recognize olfactory-visual congruency. We conducted Experiment 2 while strawberries were out of season (from July to September) to reduce participant exposure to strawberries in their daily life. Twenty-six infants aged 6-8. months were tested with a stimulus composed of a pair of photos of strawberries and tomatoes placed side by side and accompanied by a strawberry odor, or no odors. In Experiment 2, the olfactory-visual binding effect disappeared. This implies that visual-olfactory binding is triggered by an observer's experience.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1070-1075
Number of pages6
JournalAppetite
Volume58
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012/06

Keywords

  • Child development
  • Infant cognition
  • Multisensory perception
  • Object recognition
  • Olfactory perception

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology
  • Nutrition and Dietetics

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