Making sense of grounded cognition : the interplay of actual and simulated sensory experiences of taste

Abstract

Previous literature of grounded cognition has mainly demonstrated the influence of bodily states on abstract conceptual processing in the mind. On the other direction, it has also demonstrated the influence of the mind on behavioral performance, intention, and attitudes. The present research illustrates effects of both directions in a more concrete, deliberate, and sensory level by showing the bidirectional influences of actual and mentally simulated sensory experiences (mental image) of taste. In study 1, I show that actual taste of a salty and spicy food item could induce a contrast effect on the imagined sweetness of a sweet food item in mental simulation. This effect is only present for subjects who experience a high degree of mental simulation of the sweet food item but not for subjects experiencing a low degree of simulation. In study 2, I show the opposite that mental simulation of a salty and spicy food item could induce a contrast effect on the actual perceived sweetness of a sweet food item. This effect is more pronounced for subjects experiencing a high degree of mental simulation of the salty and spicy food item but is debilitated for subjects experiencing a low degree of simulation. The pattern of the results renders those pure semantic and cognitive models unlikely to account for the observed findings. The present research thus acts as cogent evidence supporting the multimodal simulation construct and extends findings in the grounded cognition literature.