Preceding Flavor Cues Modulate Visual Search via Color–Flavor Associations: Evidence for Top-Down Working-Memory Mechanisms

Although crossmodal interactions between vision and other modalities have been extensively studied, the reverse influence of nonvisual cues on visual processing remains underexplored. Through three experiments, we demonstrate how flavor cues bias visual search via color-flavor associations, with this modulation critically dependent on working-memory engagement. In Experiment 1, participants performed a shape-based visual search task after tasting either a predictive flavor (e.g., target consistently appeared in red after strawberry flavor) or an unpredictive flavor (e.g., target appeared in any of four colors with equal probability after pineapple flavor). Results showed that only predictive cues biased attention, whereas unpredictive cues had no effect. In Experiment 2, when participants performed a working-memory task, even unpredictive flavor cues shortened reaction times and accelerated fixations on targets appearing in the flavor-associated color. Experiment 3 further generalized these effects to ecologically valid product search scenarios. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that flavor cues modulate visual search through top-down mechanisms rather than bottom-up attentional capture, highlighting the essential role of working memory in driving this crossmodal attentional bias.