Summary
Consumers’ perception and response to a food product has been widely studied by many research disciplines. It is a complex process that is determined by the interaction of a number of factors which may be classified as belonging mainly to the product itself, to the consumer, and to the situation (or context).
In a given context, our perception of a stimulus (in this context, a food product) is affected, first, by its various sensory properties (both product extrinsic and product intrinsic cues). The intrinsic characteristics of a food (such as its taste, smell, colour, texture, and sound, etc.) obviously play a key role in the evaluation of consumer products. However, food is never presented in isolation, that is, it is always delivered to the final consumer in a package (as found in supermarkets), or with tableware (as in the case of a restaurant, or household context). It is important to consider that these other extrinsic elements also generate expectations concerning the properties of food (e.g., taste, texture, quality, etc.). 
Most of the research found on the impact of extrinsic factors is focused on the expectations evoked by the colours, the written information, the labeling, and the brand of packaged products. However, the evaluation of a food, at both sensory-discriminative and affective levels, may well also be influenced by the many other sensory characteristics of a package, as well as by those of the tableware used. This impact has not been explored in any depth from a multisensory or crossmodal approach before.
The present thesis aims to address this gap in the knowledge base and investigate how the different senses interact during the consumption of a food or drink, and, more precisely, how the sensory information that we receive through these external elements affects our gustatory perception and overall acceptance of a food. Each study included in this thesis explores our multisensory perception of food analyzing the interaction between different modalities -primarily vision, touch, and taste- that are involved in the process. To that end, the experimental work has been approached using a range of techniques from disciplines such as psychophysics, sociology, sensory science, and marketing (e.g., implicit association task (IAT), free word association task, different types of questionnaires). The results are explained in an interdisciplinary framework, combining knowledge and theories in areas such as perceptual psychology, sensory science, consumer research, and design. Overall, the results show how complex is the multisensory perception of a food (along with the accompanying items for its consumption), as well as its measurement and interpretation.
This work has been carried out following the official procedure for the completion of an International PhD. During the course of the PhD, the candidate performed a large number of research studies in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK) for a period of six months. Moreover, the body of this thesis consists in a compilation of publications, in accordance with the requirements established by the Universitat Politècnica de València (Valencia, Spain). It includes ten articles published in international indexed journals.