Unit 2.2.5 Fallibility of Gustatory Perception

Question 1

Supertaster

Answer 1

• Someone who has a higher number of papillae than the average person
• Giving them a heightened sensitivity to taste

Question 2

Impacts on supertaster’s daily lives

Answer 2

• More likely to withhold from alcohol + smoking
• Difficulty eating vegetables
• Often consume excess salt to counteract the perceived bitterness

Question 3

Non-taster

Answer 3

• Someone who has a lower number of papillae than the average person
• Giving them decreased sensitivity to taste

Question 4

Flavour

Answer 4

• A perceptual experience
• Produced by a combination of taste + other senses
• Such as hearing, vision, touch (texture) and smell

Question 5

Difference between taste + flavour

Answer 5

• Taste = physical sensory process
• Flavour = perception/interpretation created by the brain

Question 6

Influences on flavour

Answer 6

• Perceptual set (expectations, past experience)
• Colour intensity
• Texture

Question 7

Perceptual set (expectations + past ecperience)

Answer 7

• Flavour interpretation can be manipulated if food is coloured/shaped/etc differently from how we expect
• E.g. we expect a red drink to taste like berry because of past experience

Question 8

Colour intensity

Answer 8

• We expect that foods with a richer/brighter colour will taste better
• Food producers manipulate our flavour perception by adding more colour to foods to make us think they taste better

Question 9

Texture

Answer 9

• The property of food/beverage that is felt in the mouth + contributes to flavour
• Often what we like/dislike about the texture of a food is a direct result of what we expect from that food