The Use of Virtual Reality Technology to Improve Understanding of Food Perception and Reward

THE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF FOOD PERCEPTION AND REWARD

Sponsoring Institution

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Project Status

COMPLETE

Funding Source

HATCH

Reporting Frequency

Annual

Accession No.

0233590

Grant No.

(N/A)

Cumulative Award Amt.

(N/A)

Proposal No.

(N/A)

Multistate No.

(N/A)

Project Start Date

Apr 1, 2013

Project End Date

Sep 30, 2018

Grant Year

(N/A)

Program Code

[(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
1680 MADISON AVENUE
WOOSTER,OH 44691

Performing Department
Food Science & Technology

Non Technical Summary
Assessing product attributes and consumer liking of new prototypes is a critical component of the product development process. However, despite data suggesting a product is well-liked, nearly 80% of new launches in the grocery sector fail with a cost to manufacturers in the billions of dollars. In the Food and Beverage Industry, sensory evaluation and consumer liking tests often takes place in traditional sensory booths devoid of context. Context is a critical component of the consumer experience and prior studies have shown it to impact perception, reward processing and consumer behavior. This proposal aims to utilize emerging immersive technologies to create contextually-relevant virtual environments for the development of novel sensory and consumer-testing methodologies. Similarly, the use of immersive technologies provides the opportunity to investigate the role of visual, auditory and olfactory cues independently or when combined (as normally experienced in real-world settings) on perception and liking. Such knowledge and methods can be leveraged by the Food and Beverage Industry to optimize the product development cycle and reduce costs associated with failed product launches.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
502	7220	3090	35%
502	6010	3070	15%
502	6010	3090	15%
502	7220	3070	35%

Knowledge Area
502 - New and Improved Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
7220 - Sensory evaluation/analysis methods (human senses); 6010 - Individuals;

Field Of Science
3070 - Psychology; 3090 - Sensory science (human senses);

Keywords

methodolgy development

context

food

Goals / Objectives
The primary objective of this proposal is to investigate the use of immersive techniques in sensory and consumer hedonic testing of foods. In particular, we seek to understand the role of complex, multifaceted contextual information in shaping perception and hedonic responses and to determine the ecological validity of such testing conditions. We hypothesize that use of immersive technologies will improve the quality and predictive power of sensory and consumer testing. Sub Aim 1. We will identify the scenarios and optimal conditions by which immersive technologies provide relevant context to the evaluation of foods and beverages. We will investigate preparation (e.g. grilling or restaurant) and consumption (fast-food or social interaction) scenarios. We hypothesize that the information provided by virtual environments, whether preparatory or consummatory in nature, will (1) modulate the sensory and hedonic scores obtained by subjects compared to in-booth testing and (2) reduce intra- and inter-subject variability. Sub Aim 2: We will study the influence of visual, auditory and olfactory contextual cues in isolation and in combination on the efficacy of the virtual experience. We hypothesize that the addition of congruent, but not incongruent, stimuli will improve quality and predictive power of sensory and consumer hedonic data. We further hypothesize that higher order combinations of congruent, but not incongruent, stimuli (e.g. visual+auditory, visual+olfactory, auditory+olfactory, visual+auditory+olfactory) will provide more relevant context, and hence higher quality and more predictive data, than lower order single stimulus presentations (visual, auditory or olfactory). Sub Aim 3: We will quantify the level of testing engagement, a key determinant of consumer interest and data quality. Due to the presence of contextual cues, we hypothesize that testing conditions utilizing immersive technologies to convey congruent contextual and environmental will result in greater subject engagement as measured by subjective responses and biomarker quantification. Similarly, we hypothesize that incongruent contextual cues will be perceived as disturbing or stressful and can be measured via subjective and/or biomarker responses. Consumer sensory and hedonic data recorded under each condition will be evaluated for quality including standard deviation, response range and significant differences observed. Sub Aim 4: We will document the knowledge and methodological parameters associated with immersive environments as the first step to leverage immersive technology into the food and beverage industry's product development process. We hypothesize that the insight and parameters that we establish in the Immersive Technologies Laboratory can be streamlined for use in typical sensory and consumer testing facilities.

Project Methods
We have built an Immersive Technologies Laboratory that utilizes nine 48" flat screen monitors to create a video wall and surround sound technology to present visual and audio contextual information. In addition, we utilize a 15-channel olfactometer to deliver olfactory cues. Sub Aim 1 and 2: The impact of various contextual scenarios will be assessed. Appropriate audio and visual material will be obtained from the web or recorded directly via video. In particular, we are interested in scenarios depicting various preparatory techniques (e.g. grilling, restaurant prepared, etc.) and consumption circumstances (e.g. fast-food, picnic, social interaction). Audiovisual stimuli will be played through computer and displayed on the immersive video wall. Aromas will be dispersed into the immersive environment via a computer-controlled olfactometer. Stimuli will be presented in combination (e.g. visual+auditory, visual+olfactory, auditory+olfactory, visual+auditory+olfactory) and in isolation (visual, auditory or olfactory only). In some cases contextual information will be incongruent (e.g. fast food restaurant video, audio from a busy intersection and floral aromas). Sensory and consumer hedonic information will be obtained from participants on a variety of foods and beverages. Using standardized techniques, panelists will be asked to assess the overall liking and the intensity of various products. Comparative control data will be obtained using traditional sensory booths. Panelist scores obtained from each condition will be analyzed using t-tests or analysis of variance. Sub Aim 3: Panelist engagement in the various testing conditions (congruent immersive environments, incongruent immersive environments and conventional control environments) will be compared. Subjective responses of engagement and boredom will be obtained and compared across testing conditions. In some cases, we may record physiological markers of stress including heat rate variability, galvanic skin response and respiration. As consumer engagement is expected to improve data quality, we will evaluate sensory and hedonic data recorded under each condition and compare standard deviation, response range, the magnitude of ANOVA F-values and the number of significant differences in multiple comparison post-hoc tests. Sub Aim 4: In addition to the Immersive Technologies Laboratory, we have built two traditional sensory booths that have been outfitted with dual video monitors and stereo audio. Consistent with leveraging our findings into industry, we will validate results obtained in the larger Immersive Technologies Laboratory by executing similar experiments in the confines of the smaller testing space. Experimental design and stimulus presentation will be done as in Sub Aim 1 and 2. Panelists will receive food and beverage products consistent and inconsistent with the contextual information being presented. Sensory and consumer hedonic information will be obtained from participants on a variety of foods and beverages. Data will be collected and analyzed as in Sub Aim 1.

Progress 04/01/13 to 09/30/18

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience engaged by these efforts include sensory scientists within the food and beverage sector andacademicians within the fields of food science, food policy, psychology, business marketing and consumer science. Inaddition, we engaged non-food science staff and students within the OSU community. Efforts to engage industrialstakeholders and included hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research, presenting research findingsat seminars hosted by multinational food companies and and keynote presentations at relevant symposia including theSociety for Sensory Professionals, the Association of Chemoreception Science, the Institute of Food Technologists, the Flavor, Fragrance & Perception Conference, and the Pangborn SensoryScience Symposium.Efforts to engage the academic communtiy include scholarly presentations at these samesymposia as well as scholarly presentations at the Ohio State University Steam Factory,Departmentof Psychology, Department of Nutrition,Center for Excellence in Regulatory Tobacco Science, the University of IllinoisDepartment of Food Science, and Rutgers University Department of Food Science. These presentations have resulted intwo cross-disciplinary collaborations. In addition, we have published multiple abstracts and manuscripts detailing the outcomes of theseinvestigations. Results from these studies have been included in the curriculum of students enrolled in the Ohio State University Food Product Development and Measurement of FoodPerception and Liking courses.Finally, non-food science staff and students were engaged through a presentation to residents in OSUStudent housing regarding the role and evolution of sensory science within the food industry. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over the duration of the project, training opportunities were provided to 9 graduateand for 6 undergraduate students. Each student interacted with the PI or more experienced graduate students to help design and/or execute the studies. Professional development opportunities were obtained by hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research and presenting research findings at seminars hosted by multinational food companies, academic seminars, and professional societies and conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through publications (manuscripts and abstracts) and presentations at conferences and seminars organized and/or attended by academica and industry stakeholders. In addition, we have specifically engaged with the food industry by visiting over 10 corporate facilities to deliver seminars and/or consulting on the use of immersive technologies in sensory consumer testing. We have also hosted scientists from over 20 companies to display and discuss our immersive capabilities. Undergraduate and graduate students have been exposed to the research findings through teaching materials developed for Product Development and Sensory Evaluation courses. Finally, the Ohio State University Marketing group has developedthree separate stories that were prominently featured on the University and College landing webpage. The stories were accessible to any person landing on the OSU homepage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Impact. The utility and benefit of this proposal is multifold as the potential cost savings associated with more predictive consumer testing and a more efficient product development process is pronounced. Incorporating immersive technologies can lead to reduced product development costs and a significant decrease in time-to-market. Moreover, improving the ecological validity of testing paradigmsincreases the likelihood of understanding and delivering against consumer needs and allows for potential issues and opportunities to be identified at earlier points of the product development cycle. Accomplishments. Sub Aim 1. We will identify the scenarios and optimal conditions by which immersive technologies provide relevant context to the evaluation of foods and beverages. Over the duration of this proposal we have utilized immersive environments depicting a virtual coffeehouse, kitchen, food court, dining hall, and wine bar to assess the role of context in shaping consumer preferences and liking. In general, we found significant differences in preference order and liking for products when evaluated by the same people in a virtual scenario or traditional booths. Virtual testing also tended to be more discriminating and a more reliable predictor of future product liking. However, the effect sizes were variable indicating that liking for some products is more amenable to context than others. Additionally, we found consumers to be more engaged in the testing when evaluating products in the virtual environments, an outcome that likely also contributed to improved data quality (see sub Aim 3). Further research is needed to better understand the conditions under which context is important, how it exerts its influence, and whether its impact is consistent across all products in a set. Sub Aim 2: We will study the influence of visual, auditory and olfactory contextual cues in isolation and in combination on the efficacy of the virtual experience. The influence of congruent and incongruent information streams (visual, audio, olfactory) was evaluated on coffee acceptance. We found that panelists attended most to the visual information followed by the auditory and finally olfactory streams. However, no single incongruent information stream impacted panelist's assessments of the coffees. In fact, not until all three streams were incongruent was coffee liking affected. Sub Aim 3: We will quantify the level of testing engagement, a key determinant of consumer interest and data quality. In initial phases of testing, we found consumers to be more engaged in the testing when evaluating products in the virtual environments as compared to traditional testing environments--an outcome that likely contributed to improved data quality. However, as we further investigated the importance of engagement in consumer testing, we sought to develop a more precise and effective testing instrument. As such, we undertook a qualitative assessment through an online platform to operationalize the dimensionality of engagement and develop a preliminary questionnaire consisting of 54 items and 7 factors (ability, immersion/involvement, interest, motivation, relevance, attention, and disengagement). In a second online study, participants (n=196) recalled a time they were focused on a task for 30 to 60 minutes in order to assess the effectiveness of the initial questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to refine the scale by eliminating poor items. This resulted in a finalized 18-item questionnaire with 4 factors (interest, competence, disengagement and motivation). In a third study (N=62), the content validity of the questionnaire was assessed through a known-groups analysis by measuring engagement during a consumer acceptability test regarding wine in two contextually-relevant environments (actual wine bar, virtual reality environment) and a traditional environment. EFA produced a 4-factor model with acceptable RMSEA values under 0.06, and acceptable reliability values (alpha>0.894) for all three environments, after two items were removed due to poor performance (item-total communalities below 0.3). Although initial results are promising, further validation efforts will examine the convergent, divergent, and predictive validity of the engagement instrument. Such an instrument will enable further investigations relating panelist engagement and data quality and lead to the development of improved sensory methodologies. Sub Aim 4: We will document the knowledge and methodological parameters associated with immersive environments as the first step to leverage immersive technology into the food and beverage industry's product development process.Over the duration of this project, we have published 4 papers (and 14 abstracts) documenting the methodological parameters associated with immersive consumer testing with 4 additional manuscripts in preparation or under review. Research findings have also been presented at international (5), national (9) and regional (2) meetings that are well-attended by industry scientists. Finally, we have specifically engaged with the food industry by visiting over 10 corporate facilities to deliver seminars and/or consulting on the use of immersive technologies in sensory consumer testing. We have also hosted scientists from over 20 companies to display and discuss our immersive capabilities.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hooker N; Simons CT; Parasidis E. (2018). Natural Food Claims: Industry Practices, Consumer Expectations, and Class Action Lawsuits. FOOD AND DRUG LAW JOURNAL, 73, 319-337.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2018 Citation: Liu R; Hannum M; Simons CT. (2018). Using immersive technologies to explore the effects of congruent and incongruent contextual cues on context recall, product evaluation time, and preference and liking during consumer hedonic testing. FOOD RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hannum M; Forzley S; Popper R; Simons CT. (2018). Using engagement to characterize and evaluate differences amongst environments during a sensory evaluation. Society for Sensory Scientists Symposium.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hannum M; Forzley S; Popper R; Simons CT. (2018). Investigation, development and validation of an engagement questionnaire to be used in sensory evaluations. Society for Sensory Scientists Symposium.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Hannum M; Forzley S; Popper R; Simons CT. (2018). Wine-ing about contextDoes environment matter? Wine perception and liking in traditional booths compared to a virtual and actual wine bar. Society for Sensory Scientists Symposium.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Simons CT. (2018). Using immersive technologies to provide context during consumer acceptance testing. The 14th Conference of the Sensometrics Society.
Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Elam, Jhaelyn. Comparison of liking scores and panelist engagement when evaluating beverages in traditional booths and virtual or actual restaurant scenarios. MS Thesis. The Ohio State University. 2017

Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience engaged by these efforts include the food and beverage industry, academicians within the fields of food science, food policy, business marketing and consumer science as well as the general public. Efforts to engage industrial stakeholders included hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research, presenting findings at multinational companies,and keynote presentations atrelevant symposia including the Associatiopn of Chemoreception Science, the Society for Sensory Professionals, the Flavor, Fragrance & Perception Conference,and the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium.Efforts to engage the academic community have also occured through prresntations at these same symposia as well as scholarly presentations at theOhio State University Steam Factory and the University of Illinois Department of Food Science. Students in the Ohio State University Food Product Development and Measurement of Food Perception and Liking courses have also been exposed to the outcomes of this research. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided research training opportunities for three undergraduate and four graduate students. Professional development opportunities were obtained by hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research and presenting research findings at seminars hosted by multinational food companies, academic seminars, and professional societies and conferences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through publications (manuscripts and abstracts) and presentations at conferences and seminars organized and/or attended by academica and industry stakeholders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we plan to (1) compare results obtained in a virtual versus actual environment; (2) determine whether the immersive space can be personalized either through panelist selection of relevant videos or by having panelists bring a personal item from their own living space; (3) Develop and validate a better testing instrument to assess panelist engagement during product evaluations..

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting period we completed two studies using immersive technologies to assess the impact of contextual information on consumer liking of beverages. In study 1, we tested the hypothesis that product preference and acceptability depends on the specific context in which it is consumed. Subjects indicated their preference and acceptability of cola beverages in three scenarios wherein the likelihood of consumption is high: a party, a classroom, and a home living room environment. No panelist had the same cola preference order over all three environments. In fact, only 20% of the panelists maintained a consistent preferred product over the three conditions whereas 15% maintained a least preferred product. In study 2,we tested the hypothesis that hedonic scores of food and beverage products obtained from panelists in a virtual restaurant will better reflect liking of the same products evaluated in an actual restaurant environment compared to data obtained in traditional sensory booths. Cola and bottled tea products were consumed by panelists in each of the three environments.No differences in the pattern of product liking was observed between the three environments, however, testing in the actual and immersive environments lacked contextual relevance due to the" staged" nature of the restaurant scenario. Results suggest that significant consideration should occur when selecting the appropriate contextual cues to use in immersive testing.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Liu R, Hooker NH, Parasidis E and Simons CT. (2017). A natural experiment: using immersive technologies to study the impact of all-natural labeling on perceived food quality and liking. Journal of Food Science: Sensory and Food Quality (Fast Track), 82(3), 825-833.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Hathaway D. and Simons C.T. (2017). The impact of multiple immersion levels on data quality and panelist engagement for the evaluation of cookies under a preparation-based scenario. Food Quality and Preference, 57, 114-125.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2017 Citation: Liu R., Hannum M., Simons C.T. The use of immersive technologies to modulate the contextual congruency of visual, auditory and olfactory information streams important in shaping hedonic responses. Unpublished manuscript, Food Research International (September 2017)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: SSimons, CT. (2016 October). Contextualizing Context: Investigating the Role of Environmental Cues on Product Acceptance Using Immersive Technologies. Society for Sensory Professionals. Atlanta, GA.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Simons, CT. (2017, April). Multidisciplinary Research: Towards a Better Understanding of Flavor Perception and Liking. Association Chemoreception Sciences. Bonita Springs, FL.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Simons, C.T. (2017, June). The Use of Immersive Technology in Consumer Sensory Testing. 4th Flavor, Fragrance & Perception Conference. New Brunswick, NJ.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Simons, CT (2017, August). Consumer Testing Using Immersive Technologies. Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium. Providence, RI.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Simons, C.T. (2017, March). Vexed by Context? Using Immersive Technologies to Guide Product Development. Ohio Food Industry Summit 2017; Center for Innovative Food Technology. Columbus, OH.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Simons, C.T. (2016, October). Sensory Evaluation in the 21st Century: New Approaches to Old Issues. The Steam Factory, The Ohio State University. Columbus, OH

Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience engaged by these efforts include sensory scientists within the food and beverage sector and academicians within the fields of food science, food policy, psychology, business marketing and consumer science. In addition, we engaged non-food science staff and students within the OSU community. Efforts to engage industrial stakeholders and included hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research, presenting research findings at seminars hosted by multinational food companies and the annual meeting of the Institue of Food Technologists. Efforts to engage the academic communtiy include scholarly presentations to The Ohio State University Departments of Psychology and Nutrition as well as the Center for Excellence in Regulatory Tobacco Science. These presentations have resulted in twocross-disciplinary collaborations. In addition, we have published several abstractsdetailing the outcomes of thesel investigations. Finally, non-food science staff and students were engaged through a presentation to residents in OSU Student housing regarding the role and evolution of sensory science within the food industry. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided research training opportunities for three undergraduate and two graduate students. Professional development opportunities were obtained by hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research and presenting research findings at seminars hosted by multinational food companies and The Ohio State University Departments of Psychology and Nutrition as well as the Center for Excellence in Regulatory Tobacco Science. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through publications (thesis and several abstracts)and presentations at conferences and seminars organized and/or attended by academica and industry stakeholders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we plan to (1) compare results obtained in a virtual versus actual environment; (2)determine whether liking for the same product differs when evalauted underdifferent immersive scenarios (e.g. restaurant, home dining room, or picnic); (3) Develop and validate a better testing instrument to assess panelist engagement during product evaluations..

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting period we completed two studies using immersive technologies to assess the impact of contextual information on consumer liking of foods and beverages. In study 1, the discriminability and reliability of hedonic data werecompared when subjects evaluated four cola beverages in a traditional sensory boothand again in a virtual food court in which visual, auditory and olfactory cues consistent with this scenario were conveyed in our full immersion testing room. The virtual food court produced data that were more disciminating and reliable compared to results obtained from the same panelists evaluating the colas in sensory booths. In addition, panelists were mored engaged when testing in the virtal environment--an outcome that likely contributed to higher quality hedonic data. In study 2,the influence of congruent and incongruent information streams (visual, audio, olfactory) was evaluated on coffee acceptance. We found that panleists attended most to the visual information followed by the auditory and finally olfactory streams. However, no single incongruent information stream impacted panelists assessments of the coffees. In fact, not until all three streams were incongruent was coffee liking affected.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu R., Parasidis E., Hooker N.H., Simons C.T. A natural experiment: using immersive technologies to study the impact of "all-natural" labeling on perceived food quality, nutritional content and liking. Journal of Food Science. Under review.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2016 Citation: Hathaway D and Simons CT. The impact of multiple immersion levels on data quality and panelist engagement for the evaluation of cookies under a preparation-based scenario. Food Quality and Preference. Under review.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Simons CT. "Sensory Booths and Colored Lights-Fiction. The Importance of Ecological Validity in Sensory and Consumer Testing." Presented at the annual meeting of The Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago, IL, July 17
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu R, Hannum M, Simons CT. "The use of immersive technologies to modulate the contextual congruency of visual, auditory and olfactory stimuli important in shaping hedonic responses." Presented at the annual meeting of The Institute of Food Technologists, Chicago, IL, July 17
Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Liu, Rebecca. The use of immersive technologies to modulate the contextual congruency of visual, auditory and olfactory information streams important in shaping hedonic responses. MS Thesis. The Ohio State University. 2016

Progress 10/01/14 to 09/30/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience engaged by these efforts include the food and beverage industry, academicians within the fields of food science, food policy, business marketing and consumer science as well as the general public. Efforts to engage industrial stakeholders included hosting multiple visits by industry personnel to discuss this research and keynote presentations at relevant symposia including the Korean Society of Food Science and Technology and the Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium. Efforts to engage the academic community have been largely served by the publication of several abstracts and papers detailing the outcomes of these initial investigations as well as symposia presentations as described above. In addition, cross-disciplinary collaborative opportunities have been seeded via the presentation of results in Departmental seminars. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided research training opportunities for threeundergraduate and fourgraduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through a peer-reviewed publications and presentations at international conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we plan to (1) complete the study investigating the influence of congruent verses incongruent information streams (visual, audio, olfactory) on food acceptance;(2) determine if the quality of hedonic data can be improved in otherscenarios (e.g. point of purchase); (3) determine whether liking for the same product differs when evalauted under different immersive scenarios (e.g. restaurant, home dining room, or picnic).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting period, weexecuted fourstudies using immersive technologies to determine whether food perception or liking is influenced by context. In study 1, the influence of contextual information depicting a preparation scenario (as opposed to a consumption scenario) on food acceptance was studied. Additionally, we sought todetermine the minimal immersive requirements needed to improve consumer acceptance data. Panelists evaluated the same five cookie samples in a traditional sensory testing booth, an identical sensory booth complete with visual, auditory, and olfactory cues depicting cookie preparation in a virtual kitchen, and a full immersion testing room complete with same three context cues.The fully immersive virtual kitchen was found toproduce liking data that were more discriminating andreliable compared to the traditional booths whereas the mixed immersion environment produced data that was intermediate in quality.Additionally, we found consumers to be more engaged in the testing when cookies were evaluated in either of the immersive environments. In study 2, the impact of context was evaluated on ethanol perception by evaluating ethanol just-noticeable difference thresholds in a virtual bar environment compared to traditional sensory booths. Despite the majority of panelists identifying the immersive bar condition as more distracting, ethanol thresholds were not found to be significantly different in the two testing environments.In study 3, we evaluated the impact of food labels on product liking in a virtual grocery store. Peanut butter samples wereperceived as having higher quality when the package label indicated the product to be "all-natural". This increase in quality was potentiated by a virtual interaction with a store clerk making a simple statement that one of the sampled peanut butters was "all-natural".Finally, in study 4, the influence of congruent and incongruent information streams (visual, audio, olfactory) was evaluated on coffee acceptance. Collection of these data has not been completed.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Bangcuyo, R.G., Smith, K.J., Zumach, J.L., Pierce, A.M., Guttman, G.A., Simons, C.T. The use of immersive technologies to improve consumer testing: the role of ecological validity, context and engagement in evaluating coffee. Food Quality and Preference. 41: 84-95, 2015.
Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: Parasidis E., Hooker N., and Simons C. Addressing consumer confusion regarding natural food claims." American Journal of Law and Medicine. 41(2-3): 357-373, 2015.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: "Perplexed by context: The use of immersive technologies to study the impact of extrinsic contextual cues on the perception and liking of foods." Presented at Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium Gothenburg, Sweden (Aug 2015)
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Youre Taking it out of Context: Using Immersive Technologies to Improve Traditional Consumer Sensory Testing. Korean Society of Food Science and Technology, Busan, Korea, June 4.

Progress 10/01/13 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience engaged by these efforts include the food and beverage industry, academicians within the fields of food science, food policy, business marketing and consumer science and the general public. Efforts to engage industrial stakeholders included hosting visits by multiple industry personnel to discuss this research and keynote presentations at relevant symposia including the Northeast Ohio Agribusines Forum and the Mid-America Food Processors Association Annual Meeting. Efforts to engage the academic community have been largely served by the publication of several abstracts and papers detailing initial outcomes of these investigative efforts. In addition, cross-disciplinary collaborative opportunities have been seeded via the presentation of results in Departmental seminars. Finally, interested individuals within the Columbus-metropolitan area have been engaged through outreach presentations via the Columbus Science Pub (A Nova Science--Science Cafe Initiative). Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project provided research training opportunities for four undergraduate and three graduate students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results have been disseminated to communities of interest through peer-reviewed publications and seminars. In addition, we have specifically made an effort to enhance public understanding and interest in science and technology by particpating in the Columbus Science Pub program--a NOVA Science, Science Cafe Initiaitve. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, we plan to (1) study the influence of contextual information depicting a preparation scenario (as opposed to a consumption scenario) on food acceptance; (2) determine if the presence of contextual information influences food perception; (3) determine the minimal immersive requirements needed to improve consumer acceptance data; (4) study the influence of congruent verses incongruent information streams (visual, audio, olfactory) on food acceptance.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We utilized an immersive environment depicting a virtual coffeehouse, replete with visual, auditory and olfactory cues found regularly in this setting, and compared liking scores for five coffees to those obtained from the same individuals in a traditional testing environment in which contextual information was absent. We found significant differences in preference order and liking for coffees evaluated by the same people in the two settings and showed hedonic data collected in the virtual coffeehouse to be more discriminating and a more reliable predictor of future coffee liking unlike data collected in traditional sensory booths. Additionally, we found consumers to be more engaged in the testing when evaluating coffees in the virtual coffeehouse, an outcome that likely also contributed to improved data quality.

Publications

Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bangcuyo, RG, Smith, KJ, Zumach, JL, Pierce, AM, Guttman, GA, Simons, CT. "The use of immersive technologies to improve consumer testing: the role of ecological validity, context and engagement in evaluating coffee." Food Quality and Preference. (In Press).
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2015 Citation: Efthimios Parasidis, Christopher Simons, and Neal Hooker A Natural Experiment: Consumer Confusion and Food Claims. THE IRON TRIANGLE OF FOOD POLICY; AMERICAN JOURNAL OF LAW AND MEDICINE ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM, 2015

Progress 04/01/13 to 09/30/13

Outputs
Target Audience: This project was presented as the keynote lecture to Ohio business and scientific leaders at the Northeast Ohio Agribusiness Forum in Juy of 2013. In addition, elements of the project were highlighted in the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences newsletter and research forum. These media were accessed by scientists and business leaders nationally and resulted in mutiple conversations regarding opportunities to access the technology and leverage the impending results. Similarly, the Columbus Dispach published an article on the new Immersive Technologies lab in the science section of a Sunday newspaper edition. As with the CFAES publications, this article was acessed by scientists and business personnel throughout the region and served to initiate promising collaborations with faculty in other OSU colleges as well as other institutions. Elements of this project have also been communicated directly to national and international food manufacturers. As part of CAPPS, this project was presented to member companies in an effort to solicit further funding to support this research. Additionally, elements of the project were presented to numerous food companies visiting Ohio State University's Department of Food Science and Technology. I have given tours of the Immersive Technologies laboratory to members of the departmental Advisory Board, to members of the President's Club and to incoming Food Science and Technology undergraduate majors. Currently, I have two undergraduate students collecting data as part of their Honor's theses. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This research agenda has provided the opportunity for training three undergraduate students in research design and execution. Two undergraduate Honor's students are currently developing and executing studies to assess the impact of an immersive environment on data quality and panelist engagement during consumer sensory and hedonic testing. A third undergraduate is participating in study preparation and data collection. All students have undergone IRB training and we meet weekly to discuss the research. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The Immersive Technologies Laboratory was featured in articles published in the popular press including the Columbus Dispatch newspaper and the College of Food, Agriculture and Engineering Sciences' featured news release. These articles reached a wide cross-section of interested parties including industry and academic professionals and resulted in numerous follow-up conversations with food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, marketing companies and industrial designers. The articles also served to educate the general public with regards to this line of research and the potential benefits to them as consumers. This project was presented as the keynote lecture to Ohio business and scientific leaders at the Northeast Ohio Agribusiness Forum in Juy of 2013. In addition, elements of the project were highlighted in the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences newsletter and research forum. These media were accessed by scientists and business leaders nationally and resulted in mutiple conversations regarding opportunities to access the technology and leverage the impending results. Elements of this project have also been communicated directly to national and international food manufacturers. As part of CAPPS, this project was presented to member companies in an effort to solicit further funding to support this research. Additionally, elements of the project were presented to numerous food companies visiting Ohio State University's Department of Food Science and Technology. I have given tours of the Immersive Technologies laboratory to members of the departmental Advisory Board, to members of the President's Club and to incoming Food Science and Technology undergraduate majors. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, we will execute studies to adress sub-aims 1-3. In particular, we will collect data to study the impact of contextual information on perception and liking with a focus on quality of data obtained from an immersive envirnment compared to a traditional environment. Similarly, we will investigate the ability of an immersive enviornment to improve panelist engagement during hedonic testing. These studies will be completed in environments depicting both consumption (restaurant) and preparation (kitchen) scenarios. Finally, we will manipulate various contextual streams to determine the salience of information provided. In particualr we will compare static visual images to moving visual images and we will compare environments in which all three contextural streams (visual, auditory and olfactory) are congruent or incongruent.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We have finished construction of an Immersive Technologies Laboratory in which visual, auditory and olfactory contextual information can be manipulated. This laboratory utilizes nine 48” flat screen monitors to create a video wall and surround sound technology to present visual and audio information. Aromas can be dispersed into the immersive environment via a concealed multi-channel olfactometer. We are currently using this laboratory to initiate studies investigating sub-aims 1-3. Similarly, we completed construction of two "traditional" sensory booths that have been modified to allow distribution and manipulation of visual, auditory and olfactory information. Our goal is to leverage the findings obtained in the Immersive Technologies Laboratory into the development of methodologies and techniques that are more amenable to the current restrictions of industrial testing environments.

Publications

Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Exploring the Mysteries of Flavor, Aroma and Appetite. Northeast Ohio Agribusiness Forum, Mansfield, OH, July 26.
Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2013 Citation: "Re-Shaping the Product DevelopmentProcess Using Virtual Reality." Center for Advanced Processing and Packaging Studies Annual Spring Meeting, Columbus, OH April 2013.