The Interplay of Visual Cues and Food Memory in Shaping Culinary Perception

This study examines how food memory and visual sensory attributes jointly shape food perception by comparing two visual processing conditions within the same experimental design. A traditional dessert and its four variants were used as study samples. A total of 154 participants were divided into two groups: a food item group, which evaluated full images of the products, and the visual item group, which viewed cropped, zoom-in versions of same images. The food item group showed stronger and more consistent correlations among visual and visuo-tactile attributes, indicating influence of memory-based top-down processing. In contrast, the visual item group demonstrated more fragmented perceptions and greater variability, relying primarily on bottom-up visual heuristics. The differences between groups were significant (p < 0.05). As visual modifications increased, both groups shifted toward more visually driven evaluations under higher cognitive load. This study contributes to theoretical models of sensory perception and also offers practical implications.