Flavor-intensity perception: Effects of stimulus context

PHYSIOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

卷:105

Article

Marks, Lawrence E.^1,2,3  Shepard, Timothy G.¹  Burger, Kelly¹  Chakwin, Emily M.¹ 

[1] John B Pierce Lab, New Haven, CT 06519 USA

[2] Yale Univ, Sch Publ Hlth, Div Environm Hlth Sci, New Haven, CT 06520 USA

[3] Yale Univ, Dept Psychol, New Haven, CT 06510 USA

关键词: Flavor;    Gustation;    Olfaction;    Psychophysics;    Intensity perception;    Mixture addition;    Context effects;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.08.039

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Stimulus context affects judgments of intensity of both gustatory and olfactory flavors, and the contextual effects are modality-specific. Does context also exert separate effects on the gustatory and olfactory components of flavor mixtures? To answer this question, in each of 4 experiments, subjects rated the perceived intensity of 16 mixtures constructed by combining 4 concentrations of the gustatory flavorant sucrose with 4 concentrations of the retronasal olfactory flavorant citral. In 1 contextual condition of each experiment, concentrations of sucrose were relatively high and those of citral low; in the other condition, the relative concentrations of sucrose and citral reversed. There were 2 main results: First, consistent with earlier findings, in 5 of the 8 conditions, the ratings were consistent with linear addition of perceived sucrose and citral; departures from additivity appeared, however, in 3 conditions where the relative concentrations of citral were high. Second, changes in context produced contrast (adaptation-like changes) in perceived intensity: The contribution to perceived intensity of a given concentration of a flavorant was smaller when the contextual concentrations of that flavorant were high rather than low. A notable exception was the absence of contextual effects on the perceived intensity of near-threshold citral. These findings suggest that the contextual effects may arise separately in the gustatory and olfactory channels, prior to the integration of perceived flavor intensity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

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