Multisensory Integration of Visual,Tactile,and Olfactory Aesthetic Cues of Appearance

Abstract

Integration of olfactory, visual, and tactile aesthetic cues of appearance in the impression formation process was examined. Eighty-nine female college students, each responding to three fragrances, rated 30 fabric swatches on 7-point Likert-type scales as to the fabrics' likeliness to be worn by someone who prefers to wear a particular fragrance. Rank orders of fabrics for the two fragrances with similar olfactory structures were associated (p <. 05) whereas rank orders of fabrics for two pairs of fragrances with dissimilar structures were not associated (p > .05) according to Spearman correlations, suggesting multisensory integration of appearance cues. A priori visual and tactile aesthetic qualities of fabrics ranked high or low for each fragrance were examined for similarities. Similarities of visual and tactile qualities were found within each group of fabrics for each fragrance, suggesting multisensory integration of appearance cues on an aesthetic level.

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