Taste Perception

Question 1

Why is taste important?

Answer 1

Taste is critical to our survival.
It is believed that taste evolved to protect us from eating things that were poisonous and to ensure that we were hungry for foods that we needed to survive.
Eg. Many toxic foods/ liquids are sour or bitter and we avoid them

Question 2

Why is taste perception an important area of study?

Answer 2

Taste perception is an important area in psychology because it plays an important role in overeating and other food-related disorders.

Question 3

What is another term for taste?

Answer 3

Gustation

Question 4

What is the first stage of sensation?

Answer 4

Sensation begins when taste receptors in the mouth are stimulated by chemical molecules (dissolved in saliva) in food and drink.

Question 5

What substances can stimulate taste receptors?

Answer 5

Any substance that is soluble in saliva can stimulate the taste receptors, located in the taste buds.

Question 6

What happens after taste receptors are stimulated?

Answer 6

Once taste receptors are stimulated they convert the sensory input (taste) into electrical impulses that are sent via facial cranial nerves from the mouth to the brain.

Question 7

Where are taste receptors found?

Answer 7

Most taste receptors are found on the tongue, but some are found under the tongue, on the roof of the mouth, on the sides and back of the mouth and on the upper part of the throat behind the nose.

Question 8

How many taste receptors are there?

Answer 8

There are about 10,000 taste receptors in the mouth.

Question 9

Do taste receptors have specific regions?

Answer 9

It was once thought that taste receptors for specific tastes were found in specific regions on the tongue- it is now known that receptors are spread evenly over the tongue.

Question 10

What other sense greatly influences taste?

Answer 10

Smell

Question 11

What are the five basic tastes?

Answer 11

Sweet: usually caused by sugar or alcohol
Sour: usually caused by acidic foods such as lemons
Salty: usually caused by sodium chloride (table salt) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).
Bitter: often seen as unpalatable, could be toxic.
Umani/ savoury: rich taste caused by protein-rich foods due to the presence of glutamate

Question 12

How does age influence taste perception?

Answer 12

Ability to differentiate between tastes is highly developed at birth. Children are more sensitive and responsive to taste because they have more taste receptors than adults. Once we reach about 60 we have less taste possible because of lack of smell

Question 13

What other factors can reduce taste?

Answer 13

Dentures and chewing problems.

Question 14

How do genetics influence taste perception?

Answer 14

Genetic differences make us more or less sensitive to the chemical molecules in different foods.
Our genes can influence how bitter, sweet etc foods can taste.

Question 15

What are supertasters?

Answer 15

people who taste a particular taste sensation 2-3 times more intensely than others. This is due to more taste receptors on the tongue. Genetics cause this

Question 16

How does perceptual set influence taste?

Answer 16

The taste we experience is shaped by our perceptual set. i.e we taste what we expect to taste.
Sometimes what we see or smell can override what we think we taste.
This is why manufacturers and marketing companies pay so much attention to how food is packaged and presented.
E.G Orange juice is sweeter when it is bright orange and cheese is tastier when it is yellow, rather than white

Question 17

How does perceptual set work? How does it change the way we taste things?

Answer 17

We use food’s colour, shape, sound and appearance to determine if food is fresh, ripe, rotten or safe to eat.
When we actually taste the food our expectancy has already moulded our taste of the food

Question 18

How does culture influence our taste perception?

Answer 18

Most cultures have food practices involving the use of basic ingredients, cooking techniques and flavour principles.
E.G Asian foods traditionally include more sour and bitter tastes than western foods.
Being exposed to these differences from birth influences our taste perception.
Experience with certain foods, influenced by family also influences taste perception.

Question 19

How can pregnant mothers shape their children’s food preferences?

Answer 19

Research suggests that mothers pass their food preferences onto their offspring during pregnancy and afterbirth (via breast feeding).
In one study pregnant women drank either carrot juice or water for 3 weeks during their third trimester and during breast feeding.
Children of the mothers who drank carrot juice showed a preference for carrot juice over water.

Question 20

What actually happens when we taste? Include flavour. What is flavour influenced by?

Answer 20

We perceive the combined input from different senses (taste, smell, vision, sound, temperature, pain, tactile.) and this overall experience results in flavour. Flavour is created by the brain. Flavour is influenced by the perceptual set, colour intensity and texture.

Question 21

How does pleasure from food come about?

Answer 21

When all of the sensory components are right

Question 22

What influences our perceptual set or how we expect food to taste?

Answer 22

Past experience but it is not imperative to have tasted something to have an expectation about it. This can be created with visual appearance.

Question 23

What is a factor that has a significant influence on food flavour?

Answer 23

How food looks and its colours. We associate certain colours with specific foods which we link with certain tastes.

Question 24

What happens when the colour of food is different to what we expect?

Answer 24

Our brain interprets the food to taste different too

Question 25

What makes food more appealing?

Answer 25

Freshness, bright colours, nicely set out

Question 26

What can altering colour intensity do?

Answer 26

It can alter expectations and therefore the perception of taste of food. We have an expectation that more intensely coloured foods with have a more intense flavour.

Question 27

How does texture contribute to flavour?

Answer 27

How it is felt in the mouth contributes to flavour. Texture stimulates tactile senses and can influence flavour by- texture can help us determine how much surface area can come into contact with taste receptors (grated carrot/ piece of carrot)- the length of time food spends in mouth affects flavour. Thicker liquids coat mouth and have more time exposed to taste receptors so have more flavour

Question 28

What are some example of synaesthesia?

Answer 28

Bitter taste when shaping hamburgers. Sees blue when hears the note c on the piano. Man looks at black letters and sees the, in different colours.

Question 29

Define synaesthesia.

Answer 29

A perceptual experience in which stimulation of one sense produces additional unusual experiences in another sense. The senses get intertwined instead of remaining separate. It is a real experience and isn’t imagined.

Question 30

What are characteristics of synaesthesia?

Answer 30

Involuntary, automatic, difficult to suppress, experience is vivid, highly memorable and consistent, experiences vary amount people, one-way

Question 31

When was synaesthesia first identified? What is known now about it?

Answer 31

1880. There may be unusual brain processes associated with the penonomen. There is a genetic basis to the experience. No strong evidence to sex differences.

Question 32

How many people have synaesthesia? What is the most common type?

Answer 32

About 1 in 2000. The most common type is grapheme- colour synaesthesia- letters and numbers are coloured

Question 33

How is synaesthesia researched?

Answer 33

Case studies- not many people. Convenience sampling. Test- retest procedures are used to make sure responses are constant.

Question 34

How may synaesthesia be caused?

Answer 34

Excess of neural connections formed during neural development which are usually pruned.
The brain of someone with this has an unusual structure or functional properties- wired differently. This means that areas that usually aren’t wired together are. One sense triggers another sensory area.

Question 35

What is synaesthesia not?

Answer 35

A brain abnormality, an impairment with cognitive functioning, a sixth sense.

Question 36

Whys study synaesthesia?

Answer 36

Rare, interesting, not much is known, sheds new light on how brain is organised adn how we perceive the world. May tell us more about how the brain works and relationship between consciousness and perception.