"Like popcorn": Crossmodal correspondences between scents, 3D shapes and emotions in children

Oussama Metatla, Emanuela Maggioni, Clare Cullen, Marianna Obrist

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Contribution (Conference Proceeding)

33 Citations (Scopus)
400 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

There is increasing interest in multisensory experiences in HCL However, little research considers how sensory modalities interact with each other and how this may impact interactive experiences. We investigate how children associate emotions with scents and 3D shapes. 14 participants (10-17yrs) completed crossmodal association tasks to attribute emotional characteristics to variants of the "Bouba/Kiki" stimuli, presented as 3D tangible models, in conjunction with lemon and vanilla scents. Our findings support pre-existing mappings between shapes and scents, and confirm the associations between the combination of angular shapes ("Kiki") and lemon scent with arousing emotion, and of round shapes ("Bouba") and vanilla scent with calming emotion. This extends prior work on crossmodal correspondences in terms of stimuli (3D as opposed to 2D shapes), sample (children), and conveyed content (emotions). We outline how these findings can contribute to designing more inclusive interactive multisensory technologies.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9781450359702
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 4 May 2019
Event2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019 - Glasgow, United Kingdom
Duration: 4 May 20199 May 2019

Conference

Conference2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityGlasgow
Period4/05/199/05/19

Research Groups and Themes

  • Bristol Interaction Group

Keywords

  • 3D printing
  • Bouba
  • Crossmodal perception
  • Emotions
  • Kiki
  • Multisensory interaction
  • Smell
  • Touch

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