links for 2007-11-16
This entry was written by Iain K. MacLeod, posted on November 15, 2007 at 10:20 pm, filed under Boostmarks. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
One Comment
Ha! I just presented this experiment in class as an example of response bias masquerading as multisensory integration. There is other research out there that shows color can literally affect taste (true multisensory integration), but the wine study just shows that people judge a book by its cover. FYI - people are really good at detecting a wide range of tastes, but olfaction (and taste) is primary lateralized to the right hemisphere, while language is lateralized to the left hemisphere. This makes it incredibly difficult for us to label tastes and smells.
I love the bottle part, though. While it might suggest people are suckers, I prefer to interpret this as also being related to multisensory integration. The brain is all about predictions - you see a lovely bottle and a nice wine glass, and your brain predicts it’s going to taste good. And then your brain fills in the holes with ‘deliciousness’ to actually make the wine taste better. Literally, that is your experience. I don’t know why people like to discount that - if I think it’s better, then for me, it’s better. I totally think port tastes better when I drink it out of a tiny glass.