Scientists have investigated how smells can affect the perception of color
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Certain smells can change the way a person perceives color, every second the human brain is working to integrate sensory information to make sense of the world around them.
A study conducted by a team from three British universities has discovered a way in which smell can change the perception of reality, reports Science alert.
It is known that if the cherry soda is orange in color, a person can taste the orange, and if the strawberry drink is red, the sweeter aroma can be perceived.
How color changes the human perception of taste is well-studied, but little is known about how these hues interact with smell.
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Researchers conducted an experiment in which 24 people were in a dark room in front of a computer screen. The smell spread in the room for five minutes. Participants were never told about the scent, but only shown a colored blob on the screen.
People had to toggle two sliders, one that went from yellow to blue and the other from green to red, until the color patch became a neutral gray.
The same process was repeated until all participants experienced 4 odors 5 times.
The odors were randomly selected from a list that included caramel, cherry, coffee, lemon, and mint.
There were also periods when there were no smells in the room.
The study authors found that participants were more likely to adjust the colors too far away from neutral gray when the scent was diffused. The researchers concluded that the odors probably distorted the participants’ perception of neutral gray, tuning her to a color that corresponds to a particular odor.
When the smell of coffee wafted through the room, participants seemed to “see” a gray color with a slight red-brown tint.
Caramel, on the other hand, made participants choose a more yellow gray than a neutral gray.
Cognitive psychologist Ryan Ward of Liverpool John Moores University and his colleagues have long been interested in finding out how smell and vision interact.
Every second, the human brain works to integrate sensory information to understand the world around it.
Previous studies have shown that the nose can sometimes “smell” what the eyes “see”, and vice versa.
In past experiments, participants watched a series of dots on a computer screen move faster when a lemon scent was present and slower when a vanilla scent was present.
Also, Ward and his colleagues found that the smell of caramel is associated with dark brown and yellow, and the smell of coffee is associated with dark brown and red, cherry – with pink, red and purple, mint – with green and blue, and lemon – with yellow, green and pink.
Read also: Why is there no black, brown and gray among the colors of the rainbow?
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