Package images modulate flavors in memory: Incidental learning of fruit juice flavors

Abstract

The effect of package images on incidental flavor memory for fruit juice was investigated. Ninety-two participants were allocated to three experimental conditions: (1) apple-label, (2) peach-label, and (3) control-label. In each condition, participants tasted a target flavor stimulus, a 1:1 mixture of 100% pure apple juice and 100% pure peach juice with pictures attached to the cups. Ten minutes later, participants were confronted with samples consisting of varying ratios of 100% peach to 100% apple juice, and were asked to rate their similarity to the target stimuli. Participants were also asked to rate how congruent the juice flavor and the image were at the initial tasting. Apple images modulated memories of the flavors of target stimuli: they shifted toward that of apples. This modulation occurred in participants who perceived the label and flavor as congruent. Peach images did not modulate memories, possibly because the subjects had significantly less experience of drinking peach juice than apple juice. These results reveal that flavor memory can be biased toward that of the image labels during initial tasting. However, memory bias depends on the perceived congruency between labels and flavors, and tasters’ prior experiences.