WEEK 2 LECTURE 2B: PERCEPTION 1: SMELL & TASTE

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1 WEEK 2 LECTURE 2B: PERCEPTION 1: SMELL & TASTE OLFACTORY (SMELL) SYSTEM Designed to: identify appetitive food and avoid spoiled food track prey and detect predators identify friends, foes and receptive mates Provides capability to discriminate between thousands of different odours, but not describe them designed to identify things, not analyse or describe them typically, odours consist of a mixture of many separate odourants HOWEVER, odours tend to be treated as mixtures (wholes) rather than made up of components EG: orange smell consists of 300 odourants Gender differences Overall, females better detect and recognise (more smell-oriented than men) odourants than males Men slightly better at recognising: peanut, onion, chocolate, watermelon, banana, cheddar Females slightly better at recognising: coconut, dill, lime, gingerbread, cedar, musk. Female smell performance variable during pregnancy and menstruation (Doty and Cameron, 2009) likely to serve adaptive role EG: detecting environmental threats to foetus Olfactory perception is heavily influenced by experience Memory for smells plays a significant role in perception Unfamiliar odours difficult to discriminate smell chemicals activate multiple locations in the olfactory bulbs (the primary neural regions for the sense of smell). smell recognition involves detecting a familiar pattern of olfactory areas triggered by separate odourants a familiar pattern of odourants = recognisable smell object Previous experience enhances object perception discrimination from similar odours Implications of olfactory perception Smell experience enhances identification of smell objects smell perception can be educated by sampling Enhance recognition and preference by linking smell exposure with brand identification Things people are familiar with are liked better Action: Sampling! Differentiate odour from competitor; OR Incorporate elements of dominant competitor s odour to minimise differentiation OLFACTORY SYSTEM DESIGN Olfactory sense is the only sense that connects directly with cortex without first passing through the brain s attention gateway the thalamus Olfactory tracts connect directly with brain structures that: 1. mediate emotional responses to odours (amygdala) 2. are linked with memory encoding (hippocampus) 3. are linked with a frontal region (orbitofrontal cortex) that also processes gustatory (taste) signals Page 6 of 69

2 IMPLICATIONS IMPACT OF OLFACTORY SYSTEM ON EMOTIONS Link to EMOTION LECTURE 5 Smell sense more directly connected with emotional systems than other senses designed to exert most influence on emotional systems that influence survival behaviour Amygdala provides earliest signals from the environment to guide behaviour Motivates a fundamental behavioural response: approach or withdraw Doesn t require conscious or rational thought! Extreme examples: pheromone and oxytocin effects OLFACTORY RESPONSES MODERATE AFFECTIVE DIMENSIONS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR BOTH DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECTS Pleasant scent as part of the product (i.e. as a product attribute) Pleasant scent in the environment (i.e. ambient scent) enhances product quality perceptions enhances product evaluations enhances product evaluations increases attention to brands evokes positive associations EG: fresh scent = clean laundry Increases memory for brands encoding facilitated effects attributed to functional dimensions of the product rather than the scent enhances store evaluations, positive perceptions of store environment, time spent in store enhances long term memory for other non scent product attributes modifies time perception e.g. feelings of less time spent in store cues memory and brand schema effects increases trust and helping behaviour when matched with music (arousal) greater approach behaviour, impulse buying, customer satisfaction increase in gambling behaviour Moderators of olfactory/affect impact Olfactory effects on consumer behaviour typically reflect transient and subtle shifts in affective states (e.g. approach/withdraw), not shifts in explicit mood states Olfactory effects moderated by: brand familiarity: familiar brand = less effect of scent on affective basis for evaluation congruence between scent and product class, scent and music arousal level context other environmental influences may dominate olfactory effects awareness of affective influence more aware of affective influence leads to reduction in strength of effect IMPACT OF OLFACTORY SYSTEM ON MEMORY Sense of smell is the sense most strongly linked with encoding of autobiographical memories, due to direct connections with the primary memory encoding region the hippocampus powerful cues of autobiographical memories evokes emotionally significant associations Page 7 of 69

3 GUSTATORY (TASTE) SYSTEM Gustatory (taste) system designed to identify qualities of food linked to chemical composition and suitability to ingest Taste of food is determined by the gustatory system alone Flavour of food is determined by a combination of both gustatory and olfactory systems 5 taste qualities detected by taste receptors: sweet mostly safe to eat, energy content salty receptor detects sodium chloride, necessary for cellular metabolism umami receptor detects glutamate (amino acid in protein) meat taste bitter alkaloid content linked with poisonous foods sour acidity content linked with spoiled foods TASTE AND OTHER SENSES Taste perception is heavily biased by the other senses Smell affects taste both before and after food enters our mouth (Rozin 1982). Smell plays such an integral role in taste perception that, without it, it is difficult to distinguish a potato from an apple or wine from apple juice (Herz 2007). The intrinsic visual appearance of the food also contributes to the sense of taste in generating expectations and perceptions of flavor (Dubose, Cardello, and Maller, 1980) and can ultimately dominate gustatory cues altogether (Hoegg and Alba, 2007). The sound the food makes when bitten plays a key role in taste perceptions for certain food items (e.g., potato chips, celery, crackers), affecting perceived freshness as well as perceived quality (Zampini and Spence, 2004). Advertising that prompts multi sensory thoughts results in higher taste ratings than ads focusing on taste alone (Elder and Krishna, 2010). TASTE, QUALITY AND SAMPLING Consumer judgement of product quality impacted by product features such as taste (intrinsic cues) and on extrinsic cues (EG: price, brand) Judgement of quality is dominated by intrinsic cues such as taste when able to be evaluated with confidence at time of purchase Judgement of quality is dominated by extrinsic cues such as price or brand when intrinsic cues cannot be evaluated at time of purchase this effect is linked with risk reduction effects of price and brand information EG: Plassmann et al, PNAS, (2008) Wine price altered actual experienced pleasantness of wine taste. Higher priced wine registered greater activity in pleasure linked brain regions INTRINSIC CUE EFFECTS ON TASTE Sampling provides consumer with access to an intrinsic cue, reduces impact of extrinsic cues on purchase decision EG: sampling of store brands enhances quality perception also increases familiarity with perceptual object smell, taste codes identified and stored in memory aids future recognition may also enhance automatic component of decision making (particularly if informational processing reduced during sampling) Page 8 of 69

4 EXTRINSIC CUE EFFECTS ON TASTE Taste perception heavily impacted by extrinsic cues When two products taste equivalent, evaluation impacted by: Brand associations (EG: country of origin) EG: French yoghurt = creamier, sweeter than English yoghurt Brand status (EG: market leader versus challenger; store brand versus national brand) Preferred versus non preferred brand Preferred beer brand tastes better than non preferred Packaging EG: stay fresh packaging = crisper/tastier chip TASTE AND MEMORY Taste evaluations are subject to memory distortion, post experience can impact on evaluation EG: Braun (1999) Orange juice and advertising effects exposure to advertising after tasting poor quality orange juice enhanced evaluation of quality Post experience advertising effects are evidence of malleability of autobiographical memory memory reconstruction of the original experience altered at time of recall EG: Braun (2002) Ad for Disney increased confidence that subjects had personally shaken hands with Mickey Mouse at Disney AGE CHANGES IN SMELL/TASTE SENSATION Sensitivity of both olfactory and gustatory systems declines with age olfactory impairment more pronounce Product design must take account of age related differences in sensory perception. Sensory differences linked with age increases include: Olfactory Decreased sensitivity for broad range of odours Gustatory Decrease in sensitivity for salt (Aged 60+ reduced by 50% or more) Lower sensitivity for sour and bitter qualities No change in sweet quality Page 9 of 69

5 WEEK 3 LECTURE 3A: TOUCH (SOMATOSENSORY) TOUCH (SOMATOSENSORY) Haptic (touch) perception is mediated by somatosensory cortex Touch sensitivity varies greatly for different body parts Brain areas allocated for touch processing are relative in size to requirements for touch sensitivity EG: much greater cortical area and sensitivity allocated to fingers, lips, tongue The homunculus represents the relative size of cortical area assigned on somatosensory cortex for touch perception Graphical representation of how sensitive different area of our body are to touch. Touch Cortical Representation TOUCH IN CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING Material properties of touch used in consumer decision-making: Certain things about products can be sensed through touch and inform the value we re getting from the product EG: texture, softness, weight, temperature (Klatzky & Lederman, 1992; 1993) EG: weight edibles i.e how much potato chips you get in the bag? Is it worth it? Product category determines role of touch in consumer decision-making process if material properties provide diagnostic information, consumers more motivated to touch (Peck and Childers, 2004). For categories that are influenced by touch, customers prefer to choose products from stores where they are allowed to touch the products (McCabe and Nowlis 2003). EG: clothing In store layouts and communications encouraging touch may increase unplanned purchase (Peck and Childers, 2006) TOUCH AND DISTRIBUTION DECISIONS Physical contact preferred for categories requiring diagnostic power of touch Think about distribution challenges are you going to impair the use of the cue through that channel? EG: feeling clothing fabric, squeezing fruit, feeling the weight of a personal accessory Distribution channels that cater for touch inspection when diagnostic increase purchase likelihood EG: bricks and mortar retail (rather than online) How do you get across the challenge if you want to use online channel? Encourage returns does not give them access to cue up front but reduces risk Page 10 of 69