A JND-scale/category-scale convergence in taste

McBride, Robert

doi:10.3758/bf03205899

Cited by 101 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The mean Wrs for sweet stimuli, .13 (young) and .16 (elderly), were somewhat smaller than the value of .20 reported by Pfaffmann, Bartoshuk, and McBurney (1971), but larger than the values of .10 and .08 reported by Lundgren, Pangborn, Barylko-Pikeilna, and Daget (1976). The Wrs in the present study were consistent with the value of .17 reported by Schutz and Pilgrim (1957), and the value of .13 calculated from McBride (1983). The average bitter Wrs of .40 (Young subjects) and -i .27 (elderly subjects) were higher than those previously reported, although the young subjects generated ratios close to that reported by Schutz and Pilgrim (.30).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…The standards for caffeine were .0025 M, .005 M, and .01 M. Six comparison stimuli were prepared for each standard, three being more concentrated than the standard and three less concentrated. The six comparison stimuli for each standard were .70 %, .82 %, .94 %, 1.06%, 1.18%, and 1.30% of the standard concentration (see McBride, 1983). The levels selected for the discrimination task were determined by pretesting with a recognition task, to be sure that the stimuli to be presented in the JND experiment were actually perceptible.…”

Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

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Aging is associated with increased Weber ratios

Gilmore

Murphy

1989

Perception & Psychophysics

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To investigate whether age-associated changes in the human taste system are quality-specific, we compared young and elderly subjects' suprathreshold discrimination abilities for caffeine and sucrose. The method of constant stimuli was used to obtain just noticeable differences and Weber ratios. The elderly generated larger Weber ratios than did the young for both the medium and high concentrations of caffeine, but not for the low concentration. For example, a 74% increase in .005M caffeine was required to obtain a perceptible difference for the elderly, whereas a 34% increase produced a perceptible difference for the young. The Weber ratios for sucrose did not differ for the two age groups. The results of this study indicate that age-associated changes in the taste system are quality-specific. 555We wished to know whether impairment in the ability \ to discriminate just noticeable differences (INDs) Investigations of psychophysical functions, recognition thresholds, and detection thresholds for taste in the elderly demonstrate age-associated impairment (see Murphy, 1986, in press, andSchiffman, 1986, for reviews) and suggest the additional hypothesis that the effects of aging on the taste system may be quality-specific (Bartoshuk, This research was supported by Grant AG04085 from the National Institute on Aging to Claire Murphy. We are grateful to James Brown, for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and to Jill Sniffen, Kim Malloy, and Diane Bodge for their gracious assistance in testing subjects. Magdalena M. Gilmore (formerly Jensen) is now at the Department of Psychology, Brown University, Providence, RI. Correspondence may be addressed to Claire Murphy, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-0551. Rifkin, Marks, & Bars, 1986; Cowart, 1983, in press;Hyde & Feller, 1981;'Murphy & Gilmore, 1989;Spitzer, 1988;Weiffenbach, Baum, & Burghauser, 1982;Weiffenbach, Cowart, & Baum, 1986). When we determined psychophysical functions for stimuli representative of the four basic taste qualities in a previous study (Murphy & Gilmore, 1989), the elderly's intensity estimates of bitter were the most depressed relative to young people's estimates, and their intensity estimates of sweet were the least depressed. Therefore, tastants representative of these two taste qualities were examined in the present study, and we hypothesized that larger age differences would be found in the discrimination of bitter, as opposed to sweet, stimuli.Thus, the present study addressed two questions. First, do elderly individuals require a greater increase in the concentration of a suprathreshold stimulus in order to experience a perceptible difference in taste sensation than young subjects do? Second, does the size of the Weber ratio depend not only on age, but also on the stimulus tested? METHOD SubjectsThe participants were 12 females, 67-77 years of age (M = 72.42, SD = 3.20), and 12 females, 18-25 years of age (M = 22.92, SD = 1.51). All of the elderly subjects were active, communitydw...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Stimulimentioning

confidence: 99%

Aging is associated with increased Weber ratios

Gilmore

Murphy

1989

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…(These data have been published in McBride, 1983, and are shown here again to allow easy comparison with the fructose and glucose data.) Over the concentration range used, there is close approximation to a straight line in a semilog plot (Fechner's law), and the ratings were fitted against log sucrose concentration by the method of least squares.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…13r-------r----,-----,----~~~~~-s ession is no different from that suggested after iteration: Once again, it appears that subjects made their judgments in an absolute manner, unaffected by immediate context. Two reasons have been suggested for this absence of stimulus spacing bias (McBride, 1983). First, with only four stimuli presented at each session, there actually is less "context" than in most psychophysical experiments, and the stimulus distribution is less likely to affect judgment.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mean ratings for the extreme stimuli, which were common to all three parts, barely changed between parts. The error bars show that response Variability remained reasonably constant, regardProcedure Determination of the category scale for sucrose has been described previously (McBride, 1983). Parts 1 and 2 each consisted of two replicate sessions, the sessions within each part being held on consecutive days.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Category scales of sweetness are consistent with sweetness-matching data

McBride

1983

Perception & Psychophysics

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Category scales were obtained for the sweetness of sucrose, fructose, and glucose, with care being taken to preclude methodological bias. These category scales were then used to predict the outcome of scale-free sweetness matching with the same three sweeteners. The matching concentrations predicted from the category scales were found to agree well with those actually obtained in several sweetness-matching studies.

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