“Like Popcorn”: crossmodal correspondences between scents, 3D shapes and emotions in children

There is increasing interest in multisensory experiences in HCI. However, little research considers how sensory modali- ties interact with each other and how this may impact interac- tive experiences. We investigate how children associate emo- tions with scents and 3D shapes. 14 participants (10-17yrs) completed crossmodal association tasks to attribute emo- tional 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 map- pings between shapes and scents, and confirm the associa- tions 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 ex- tends 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 find- ings can contribute to designing more inclusive interactive multisensory technologies.