ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the trigeminal nerve if, for example, the food contains chili pepper. Input from these many senses makes up what we call the flavor of the food. The importance of color in identifying a food depends on how strongly associated the color is with the food. The importance of color in flavor identification also depends upon what other cues are available, including the shape of the food item. Colors that are appropriate for the beverage appear to help subjects identify the flavor while inappropriate colors decrease accuracy, leading to incorrect identifications. However, Zampini, Sanabria, Phillips, and Spence failed to see a facilitative effect of appropriate colors when they provided subjects with a list of possible flavors to choose from. The facilitative effect of an appropriate color on flavor identification is probably a result of the color’s activating odor search images and labels in memory that have been associated with that color in the past, in that context.
