Also, the simple tongue map will not take into account the impact olfaction (smell) has on taste. .
What we refer to as "flavour" is a combination of smell and taste. Without a sense of smell, stimuli cannot be fully tasted and assessed. With your eyes closed and your nose pinched, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a chunk of apple and a chunk of potato. On the way into the mouth, foods are already giving off vapours that waft up into your nose. Once you start chewing, more vapours travel the retro-nasal route, up the pharynx and into the nasal cavities. At the back of each cavity, the molecules hit the olfactory membrane, a small patch of yellowish grey tissue. Each membrane contains an estimated 100 million receptor cells, capable of sending messages, in the form of electric currents, to the brain. The combination of gustation and olfaction messages is then interpreted by the brain to best assess taste sensations. .
The purpose of the experiment is to investigate the human ability to perceive and determine the taste of different flavoured jelly belly candies, given specific, differing situations. The situations differed in that they each allowed different senses to be available to perceive and determine taste. The situations" components and differences will be described in this report. If specific units (later described) are used to measure the accuracy of perceiving and determining taste, it can be hypothesized that when a human's eyes are open with nose open, the ability to perceive and determine taste will be most accurate, and when a human's eyes are closed with nose closed, the ability will be least accurate. .
Methods.
Participants:.
The participants used in this experiment were students enrolled in the Psychology 1000 tutorials. They were male and female, approximately between the ages of 18-25. None of the participants reported having any known food allergies. .
Apparatus:.