WAC 2022 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 WAC 9 WAC 2022 9 2 - WAC - Oral presentations 9 How do we describe wine imagery? Expertise shapes language usage and multimodal imagery for wine

How do we describe wine imagery? Expertise shapes language usage and multimodal imagery for wine

Abstract

The acquisition of wine expertise is a multi-faceted and multisensory process with implications for sensory perception, attention, memory, and language production. With the prevalence of the predictive model of brain functioning, one area of burgeoning research interest involves wine mental imagery, since the brain relies on imagined experiences to build predictions for the future. Recent evidence has shown that, for instance, those with higher imagery vividness are more susceptible to wine advertising. However, little is known about the association between mental imagery and other associated cognitive processes, such as the ability to produce words that describe such imagery. 

To answer this question, we compared the performance of 49 wine experts (WSET Diploma level or equivalent) with a control group of 82 novices. All participants completed the newly validated Vividness of Wine Imagery Questionnaire, where they rated perceived vividness of imagery in four different sensory modalities (vision, smell, taste, mouthfeel) over six different tasting scenarios. In addition to rating imagery vividness, they also wrote descriptions of their imagined experiences for each scenario and modality. 

Our results showed that experts and novices differed in both wine imagery vividness and in their use of language to describe imagined wine tasting experiences. First, wine experts experienced more vivid imagery compared to novices in all sensory modalities (smell, taste, mouthfeel) except for vision, where novices experienced a similar level of vividness as experts. Moreover, experts used more words and more source terms to describe their imagery experiences compared to novices. Linguistic analysis revealed that, when describing imagined aromas, experts used words that have a higher level of concreteness, are more strongly associated with olfaction, and are more specific in their description of odours. Finally, we found a positive relationship between imagery vividness and the length of description across all modalities. 

The present study indicates that the acquisition of wine expertise involves changes in both language usage and vividness of olfactory imagery. However, future investigation is needed to elucidate the causal relationship between vocabulary development and imagery specificity.

DOI:

Publication date: June 13, 2022

Issue: WAC 2022

Type: Article

Authors

Qian Janice, Ilja, CROIJMANS, Robert, PELLEGRINO

Presenting author

Qian Janice, WANG – Aarhus University, Denmark

Utrecht University, Netherlands | Monell Chemical Senses Center, USA

Contact the author

Keywords

mental imagery; wine expertise; natural language processing; multisensory perception; cognition

Tags

IVES Conference Series | WAC 2022

Citation

Related articles…

Evaluating Smoke Contaminants in Wine Using 13C-Labelled Barley as a Fuel Source

Wildfires are becoming more common in many areas of the world that are also associated with wine grape production, especially the Pacific northwest United States, Australia and even some areas of France.

Forcing vine regrowth in Vitis vinifera cv. Touriga nacional at Douro region

[lwp_divi_breadcrumbs home_text="IVES" use_before_icon="on" before_icon="||divi||400" module_id="publication-ariane" _builder_version="4.20.4" _module_preset="default" module_text_align="center" module_font_size="16px" text_orientation="center"...

Establishment of a geodatabase ‘for the characterization of the viticultural “terroirs” of “canton de Vaud” (Switzerland)

La caractérisation objective des terroirs viticoles est nécessaire pour mieux comprendre les relations existantes entre les sols, la plante et la qualité de la production vinicole. Dans le cadre d’une recherche sur les terroirs viticoles du canton de Vaud – Suisse, un géorépertoire pédologique et agronomique a été conçu et réalisé.

GrapeBreed4IPM: A horizon Europe project for sustainable viticulture through multi-actor breeding and innovation

Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation are among the greatest challenges of our time, and agriculture’s use of pesticides is a major driver.

Elevational range shifts of mountain vineyards: Recent dynamics in response to a warming climate

Increasing temperatures worldwide are expected to cause a change in spatial distribution of plant species along elevational gradients and there are already observable shifts to higher elevations as a consequence of climate change for many species. Not only naturally growing plants, but also agricultural cultivations are subject to the effects of climate change, as the type of cultivation and the economic viability depends largely on the prevailing climatic conditions. A shift to higher elevations therefore represents a viable adaptation strategy to climate change, as higher elevations are characterized by lower temperatures. This is especially important in the case of viticulture because a certain wine-style can only be achieved under very specific climatic conditions. Although there are several studies investigating climatic suitability within winegrowing regions or longitudinal shifts of winegrowing areas, little is known about how fast vineyards move to higher elevations, which may represent a viable strategy for winegrowers to maintain growing conditions and thus wine-style, despite the effects of climate change. We therefore investigated the change in the spatial distribution of vineyards along an elevational gradient over the past 20 years in the mountainous wine-growing region of Alto Adige (Italy). A dataset containing information about location and planting year of more than 26000 vineyard parcels and 30 varieties was used to perform this analysis. Preliminary results suggest that there has been a shift to higher elevations for vineyards in general (from formerly 700m to currently 850 m a.s.l., with extreme sites reaching 1200 m a.s.l.), but also that this development has not been uniform across different varieties and products (i.e. vitis vinifera vs hybrid varieties and still vssparkling wines). This is important for climate change adaptation as well as for rural development. Mountain areas, especially at mid to high elevations, are often characterized by severe land abandonment which can be avoided to some degree if economically viable and sustainable land management strategies are available.