Abstract The images shown on food packaging play an important role in the processes of identification, categorisation and the generation of expectations, since the consumer uses the images to infer information about the product. However, a given image may convey different meanings (e.g. in a food package, “fire” may mean barbecued or spicy ), so it is very important for producers and designers to understand the factors responsible for consumers inferring a specific meaning. This paper addresses this problem and shows experimentally that the consumer tends to infer the meaning from the image which is most congruent with the product it is displayed with. 65 participants carried out two speeded classification tasks which results show an interaction between the product (congruent vs. incongruent) and the image (with fire vs. without fire): products congruent with a meaning of fire were categorised more quickly when shown with fire than without it, while products incongruent with a meaning of fire were categorised more slowly when shown with fire than without it. In addition, the results show that stimuli were categorised more quickly when the interpretation of fire was literal (e.g. barbecue) than in those that were metaphorical (e.g. spiciness), indicating that the rhetorical style of the image (literal or metaphorical) influences the cognitive effort required to process it. These contributions improve our understanding of the effect of the images shown on packaging in the communication between packaging and consumers.

中文翻译：

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你说的热是什么意思？评估由食品包装上的火焰图像的视觉描绘引起的联想

摘要 食品包装上显示的图像在识别、分类和产生期望的过程中起着重要作用，因为消费者使用图像来推断有关产品的信息。然而，给定的图像可能传达不同的含义（例如，在食品包装中，“火”可能意味着烧烤或辛辣），因此对于生产者和设计者来说，了解导致消费者推断出特定含义的因素非常重要。本文解决了这个问题，并通过实验表明，消费者倾向于从与其展示的产品最一致的图像中推断出含义。65 名参与者执行了两项快速分类任务，结果显示了产品（一致与不一致）和图像（有火与无火）之间的相互作用：与火相一致的产品在有火时比没有火时分类得更快，而与火不相容的产品在有火时比没有火时分类得慢。此外，结果表明，当对火的解释是字面的（例如烧烤）时，刺激的分类比隐喻的（例如辣味）更快，这表明图像的修辞风格（字面或隐喻）影响认知处理它所需的努力。这些贡献提高了我们对包装上显示的图像在包装与消费者之间的交流中的影响的理解。而与火的含义不一致的产品在显示火时比没有火时分类得更慢。此外，结果表明，当对火的解释是字面的（例如烧烤）时，刺激的分类比隐喻的（例如辣味）更快，这表明图像的修辞风格（字面或隐喻）影响认知处理它所需的努力。这些贡献提高了我们对包装上显示的图像在包装与消费者之间的交流中的影响的理解。而与火的含义不一致的产品在显示火时比没有火时分类得更慢。此外，结果表明，当对火的解释是字面的（例如烧烤）时，刺激的分类比隐喻的（例如辣味）更快，这表明图像的修辞风格（字面或隐喻）影响认知处理它所需的努力。这些贡献提高了我们对包装上显示的图像在包装与消费者之间的交流中的影响的理解。表明图像的修辞风格（文字或隐喻）影响处理它所需的认知努力。这些贡献提高了我们对包装上显示的图像在包装与消费者之间的交流中的影响的理解。表明图像的修辞风格（文字或隐喻）影响处理它所需的认知努力。这些贡献提高了我们对包装上显示的图像在包装与消费者之间的交流中的影响的理解。