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This scoping review examines the application of sensory research methodologies and methods in primary research, guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s five-stage framework. The scoping review addresses two primary questions: (1) what is the extent and nature of research activities that use multisensory methodologies and (2) what is the extent and nature of research activities that use multisensory methods? The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Checklist was used to guide the reporting and mapping process. A total of 80 sources (45 peer-reviewed articles and 35 dissertations) met the inclusion criteria. Findings reveal ethnographic-based methodologies were the most common sensory approach, whereas combined visual and audio methods were the most commonly used techniques. There is the potential for more innovative and inclusive methodologies and methods to expand the use of taste and smell, which remain underrepresented in the literature. Additionally, greater attention is needed to address power dynamics and reflexivity in sensory research to avoid essentializing or misrepresenting participants’ experiences. Future research could improve methodological clarity and consistency while emphasizing accessibility and community engagement. This scoping review contributes to the field of sensory research by synthesizing current practices and identifying gaps that warrant future exploration, particularly in underrepresented sensory modalities.

As recent years have seen a growing interest in integrating consumer and sensory science, this paper aims at presenting a systematic literature review of empirical studies investigating the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic food product attributes on consumers’ food decision making. Both an electronic search through a digital library database and a forward–backward search identified relevant international research. The final set of studies (n = 602) was coded in terms of research methods, intrinsic and/or extrinsic product attributes, consumer response measurement, study location, sample size, study origin, and food type. Although the importance of some product attributes such as taste, label, and price are very well recognized, other variables such as appearance, smell, sound, texture, and packaging have been neglected in research so far. Findings also show an imbalance of applied methods in consumer and sensory research. Surveys/questionnaires and acceptance tests are well-represented, whereas other methods or combinations thereof were rarely or never applied. Food liking was found to be the most frequent way to obtain consumer food evaluation data. Mirroring an increasing importance of product attributes in consumer food decisions, marketing managers and product developers today are well advised to take simultaneous effects of extrinsic and product attributes into account. This article calls for future studies with more holistic study designs to avoid the risk of misleading conclusions in both consumer and sensory research.

The initial research was in response to a call for a small exhibition to showcase the range of MFA visual communication research projects at Edinburgh College of Art where I was studying. Using data from Andreas Keller’s research at the Voshall Lab to find out “how New Yorkers interact with the odorous universe,” Twilley picked a representative twelve smells to create two maps: one showing the city according to a dominant odor perception framework in each neighbourhood and the second a crowd-sourced selection of smell biases from visitors to the exhibition. The descriptive question I was seeking responses to was, “Which smell reminds you of Paris?” I elected to use multiple methods; semi-structured face-to-face interviews, internet-based research, and limited content analysis of a piece of journalism, as well as drawing on personal recall. During the course of the nine semi-structured interviews, many people explained symbolic associations of the smell and their personal reasons for selecting them; for example, one woman picked perfume explaining that whenever she leaves the city she takes Yves St Laurent’s “Paris” with her as a reminder of home.

The purpose of this article was to examine the effects of age on (a) various psychophysical measures of threshold sensitivity and temporal processing in hearing, vision, and touch and (b) measures of cognitive processing as assessed by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Third Edition (Wechsler, 1997). Age group differences and correlations with age were examined, as were associations among age, sensory processing, and cognition. The group analyses showed significant differences on most sensory and cognitive measures such that middle-aged adults performed significantly worse than young adults and significantly better than older adults. Correlations of performance with age were also significant when analyses were restricted to just the young and middle-aged adults. Last, sensory processing, but not age, was significantly correlated with cognitive processing when analyses were restricted to just the young and middle-aged adults. Middle-aged adults experienced declines in both sensory and cognitive processing. The declines in both the cognitive and sensory domains were such that, for most measures in each domain, the performance of middle-aged adults fell somewhere between that of young and older adults.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of evidence of age-related declines in speech recognition in middle age to older adulthood; to review contributions of pure-tone thresholds, age, and gender; and to report preliminary results from a longitudinal study. Method: Pure-tone thresholds and word recognition in quiet and babble are being measured in a large sample of adults yearly or every 2 to 3 years. Analyses included > 16,000 audiograms and speech recognition scores from > 1,200 adults whose ages ranged from the 40s to the 90s. A multivariable generalized linear repeated mixed model assessed changes in thresholds and speech recognition over time. Results: Word recognition in quiet declined significantly while controlling for threshold increases, and declines appeared to accelerate near ages 65 to 70 years. Scores for men were poorer than those for women even after controlling for gender differences in thresholds, but rates of decline did not differ by gender. Smaller declines in key word recognition in babble were observed, and declines appeared to accelerate near ages 75 to 80 years. Conclusions: Additional evidence is needed from large-scale longitudinal cohort studies to determine rates of change of auditory function across the life span. These studies can identify associations with modifiable risk factors and potential mechanisms to reduce, to prevent, or to delay the onset of age-related hearing loss.

This research forum article summarizes research from our laboratory that assessed middle-aged adults' ability to understand speech in the presence of competing talkers. The performance of middle-aged adults on laboratory-based speech understanding tasks was compared to that of younger and older adults. Decline in the ability to understand speech in complex listening environments can be demonstrated in midlife. The specific auditory and cognitive contributors to these problems have yet to be established. There is evidence that the ability to understand a target speech message in the presence of competing speech messages changes relatively early in the aging process. The nature and impact of these changes warrant further investigation.

The purpose of this brief report is to provide a synopsis of recent work, primarily from the authors' laboratory, that points to the emergence of temporal processing deficits relatively early in the aging process. The approach taken was to provide a descriptive summary of selected published and current experiments focusing on the processing of temporal envelopes and fine structure. Deficits in both temporal envelope and temporal fine structure processing are evident during middle age even while audiometric hearing sensitivity remains normal.

The purpose of this summary is to examine changes in listening comprehension across the adult lifespan and to identify factors associated with individual differences in listening comprehension. In this article, the author reports on both cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in listening comprehension. Despite significant declines in both sensory and cognitive abilities, listening comprehension remains relatively unchanged in middle-aged listeners (between the ages of 40 and 60 years) compared with young listeners. These results are discussed with respect to possible compensatory factors that maintain listening comprehension despite impaired hearing and reduced cognitive capacities.