We live in a rich multisensory environment, in which we experience a continuous stream of sensory information coming from different sensory modalities, such as vision, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Our brains constantly encode, filter, and integrate that sensory information, and generate a unified perception of the world. However, how the brain processes and binds those sensory inputs are still unknown. Crossmodal correspondence refers to the tendency for normal observers to match distinct features or dimensions of experience across different sensory modalities (e.g., “bouba-kiki” effect). There has been a rapid growth of research interest in crossmodal correspondence over the last two decades. More and more crossmodal correspondences, within-modal correspondences, associations between sensory dimensions and concepts, and experiences have been identified. The congruency effect of crossmodal correspondences on facilitating sensory processing has also been highlighted.

Product Experience brings together research that investigates how people experience products: durable, non-durable, or virtual. In contrast to other books, the present book takes a very broad, possibly all-inclusive perspective, on how people experience products. It thereby bridges gaps between several areas within psychology (e.g. perception, cognition, emotion) and links these areas to more applied areas of science, such as product design, human-computer interaction and marketing. The field of product experience research will include some of the research from four areas: Arts, Ergonomics, Technology, and Marketing. Traditionally, each of these four fields seems to have a natural emphasis on the human (ergonomics and marketing), the product (technology) or the experience (arts). However, to fully understand human product experience, we need to use different approaches and we need to build bridges between these various fields of expertise. - Most comprehensive collection of psychological research behind product design and usability - Consistenly addresses the 3 components of human-product experience: the human, the product, and the experience - International contributions from experts in the field

Multisensory Perception: From Laboratory to Clinic surveys the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes, synthesizing information from diverse streams of research and defining hypotheses and questions to direct future work. Reflecting the nature of the field, the book is interdisciplinary, comprising the findings and views of writers with diverse backgrounds and varied methods, including psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches. Sections cover basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, the topic of crossmodal correspondences between particular sensory attributes, the related topic of synesthesia, and the clinic. - Offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the current state of knowledge on multisensory processes - Coverage includes basic principles, specific interactions between the senses, crossmodal correspondences and the clinical aspects of multisensory processes - Includes psychophysical, neuroanatomical, neurophysiological and neuroimaging approaches

What we hear before and/or while we eat and drink often affects our tasting experiences. The focus of Auditory Contributions to Food Perception and Consume Behaviour is to provide a state-of-the-art summary on how such music and ambient inputs can influence our expectations, our purchasing behaviour, as well as our product experience. Much of the research collected together in this volume relates to ‘sonic seasoning’: This is where music/soundscapes are especially chosen, or else designed/composed, in order to correspond to, and hence hopefully to modify the associated taste/aroma/mouthfeel/flavour in food and beverages. The various chapters collected together in this volume provide a state-of-the-art summary of this intriguing and emerging field of research, as well as highlighting some of the key directions for future research. Contributors are Sue Bastian, Thadeus L. Beekman, Jo Burzynska, Andrew Childress, Ilja Croijmans, Silvana Dakduk , Alexandra Fiegel, Apratim Guha, Ryuta Kawashima, Bruno Mesz, Kosuke Motoki, Rui Nouchi, Felipe Reinoso-Carvalho, Pablo Riera, Marijn Peters Rit, Toshiki Saito, Han-Seok Seo, Mariano Sigman, Laura J. Speed, Charles Spence, Motoaki Sugiura, Marcos Trevisan, Carlos Velasco, Johan Wagemans, and Qian Janice Wang.

Synesthesia is a fascinating phenomenon which has captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. This title brings together a broad body of knowledge about this condition into one definitive state-of-the-art handbook.

Cognitive neuroscientists have started to uncover the neural substrates, systems, and mechanisms enabling us to prioritize the processing of certain sensory information over other, currently less-relevant, inputs. However, there is still a large gap between the knowledge generated in the laboratory and its application to real-life problems of attention as when, for example, interface operators are multi-tasking. In this Element, laboratory studies on crossmodal attention (both behavioural/psychophysical and cognitive neuroscience) are situated within the applied context of driving. We contrast the often idiosyncratic conditions favoured by much of the laboratory research, typically using a few popular paradigms involving simplified experimental conditions, with the noisy, multisensory, real-world environments filled with complex, intrinsically-meaningful stimuli. By drawing attention to the differences between basic and applied studies in the context of driving, we highlight a number of important issues and neglected areas of research as far as the study of crossmodal attention is concerned.

Multisensory Experiences: Where the senses meet technology takes you on a journey that goes from the fundamentals of multisensory experiences, through the relationship between the senses and technology, to what the future of those experiences may look like, and our responsibility in it.