Summary: Researchers report that the sequence in which visual and olfactory cues reach the senses affects how much people enjoy and consume food and drink.
Source: USF
New research from the University of South Florida (USF) finds that the order in which you encounter sensory cues—specifically sight and smell—can meaningfully change how a food or beverage tastes. The study shows that when people see a product before they smell it, they tend to rate it as tasting better and often consume more of it.
Published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, the research tested how sequential sensory cues influence taste perception across four experiments featuring cookies, strawberry-flavored fruit snacks and lemonade. The experiments compared several conditions: visual cue before olfactory cue, olfactory cue before visual cue, and exposure to only one of the cues.
In one experiment with nearly 200 participants, identical strawberry fruit snacks were presented in either opaque or transparent packaging and delivered in different sensory orders. Even though the products were the same, participants who saw the snack before smelling it rated the flavor more positively than those who smelled it before seeing it. The same pattern emerged in tests with cookies.
Lead author Dipayan Biswas, Frank Harvey Endowed Professor of Marketing at USF, explains that seeing a food item first helps the brain process the subsequent scent more easily, which in turn enhances flavor perception. “Scents play a very critical role in influencing taste perceptions; however, people can process a scent better in their brains when the scent is preceded by a corresponding visual cue, such as color,” he said.
The researchers extended their work to beverages. They served the same yellow-colored lemonade in lidded clear plastic cups and in lidded opaque cups that had been splashed with artificial lemon scent. Participants preferred and consumed more of the drink they could see before smelling. Consumption was measured by leaving the beverages available while participants completed an unrelated task, observing how much they drank.
To probe how mismatched visual cues affect perception, the team also added odorless purple food coloring to the lemonade. Because purple is not typically associated with lemon, the color contradicted expectations and reduced taste enjoyment—demonstrating that inconsistent visual information can harm flavor perception.
These findings suggest a clear cross-modal interaction: an olfactory cue benefits when it follows a congruent visual cue, but the reverse sequence (smell before sight) does not offer the same advantage. The researchers found that the ease with which participants processed the scent explained part of the effect: visual cues appear to prime and simplify olfactory processing, leading to more favorable taste judgments, greater consumption and stronger product recommendations.
The research team, which includes collaborators from Columbia University and the University of Rhode Island, highlights practical implications for retailers, restaurants and food manufacturers. Biswas recommends that supermarkets consider display strategies that allow customers to see products from a distance before encountering strong smells—glass cases, transparent packaging or visible samples with photos can help ensure that a visual cue precedes an olfactory one. For packaged pantry items like potato chips, transparent packaging could increase appeal by letting visual information set expectations before scent cues are processed.
Beyond retail design, the study contributes to a broader understanding of how multisensory processing influences consumer experience. Biswas has previously published research on related factors that shape taste perception, including how sitting down to eat or the presence of ambient scent and music can affect what people order and how they evaluate food.
About this sensory perception research news
Source: USF
Contact: Press Office – USF
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Original Research: Closed access. “Effects of Sequential Sensory Cues on Food Taste Perception: Cross‐Modal Interplay Between Visual and Olfactory Stimuli” by Dipayan Biswas, Lauren I. Labrecque, Donald R. Lehmann. Journal of Consumer Psychology
Abstract
Effects of Sequential Sensory Cues on Food Taste Perception: Cross‐Modal Interplay Between Visual and Olfactory Stimuli
Sensory cues in shopping and consumption often arrive in sequence rather than simultaneously. Prior research has typically examined simultaneous cues; this study takes a different approach by testing how the order of sequential visual and olfactory cues affects gustatory judgment. Across four experiments, the authors find consistent evidence that when a relevant visual cue precedes an olfactory cue (visual → olfactory), consumers report higher taste ratings, consume larger volumes, and show stronger recommendations and choice behavior compared with the reverse order (olfactory → visual).
The results indicate that the beneficial effect of the visual-first sequence occurs because it makes processing the subsequent olfactory cue easier, and that this ease of olfactory processing mediates the influence of cue order on taste perception. These findings underscore important cross-modal effects that have implications for packaging, retail layout, restaurant design and overall consumer well-being.