Lecture: "Connecting the senses across time and space", by Professor Charles Spence
The Doctoral Programme in Psychology is pleased to invite you to a lecture delivered by Professor Charles Spence, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, entitled “Connecting the Senses Across Time and Space: Crossmodal Correspondences in Science, Art, & Design.”
This lecture will take place on 29 October at 2:30 PM in Auditorium 306, CVTT Building.
Join us for this special opportunity to hear from a leading figure in psychology and explore the fascinating connections between our senses, science, art, and design.
This lecture is open to all, and we would be grateful if you could share this invitation with anyone who may be interested - students, Master’s and PhD under your supervision, and colleagues from other Departments or Universities.
We look forward to welcoming you to this conference, which offers a rare opportunity to hear firsthand from a leading figure in psychology.
Abstract | In this lecture, I will discuss the emerging scientific literature on the crossmodal correspondences; these are the sometimes-surprising, almost-synaesthetic, connections between the senses that we all share. The latest research shows that these ubiquitous correspondences play a key role in multisensory perception. I will take a brief look at the history of the correspondences before highlighting how our emerging understanding of these cross-sensory connections are now being integrated the worlds of art and multisensory experience design, including in the gastronomic arenas and in the context of sensory marketing and multimodal interface design.
Organization | Doctoral Program in Psychology, Cis Iscte, and Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies – CEIS20, University of Coimbra
Biography of Professor Charles Spence | Professor Charles Spence is a world-famous experimental psychologist with a specialization in neuroscience-inspired multisensory design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies across the globe since establishing the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University in 1997. Prof. Spence has published over 1,350 academic articles and edited or authored, 17 books including, in 2014, the Prose prize-winning “The perfect meal”, and the international bestseller “Gastrophysics: The new science of eating” (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique from Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie. His popular science book “Sensehacking” was published in 2021, and “Digital Dining”, with Prof. Carlos Velasco, in 2025. Much of Prof. Spence’s work focuses on the design of enhanced multisensory food and drink experiences, through collaborations with chefs, baristas, mixologists, chocolatiers, perfumiers, and the food and beverage, and flavour and fragrance industries. Prof. Spence has worked extensively in the world of multisensory experiential wine and coffee and has also worked extensively on the question of how technology will transform our dining/drinking experiences in the future.
