Experiment Summary Essay

Removing the sense of sight altered the ability to identify taste among the flavors of jelly beans being sampled by the test subjects. The control group was able to easily recognize the lime, cherry, orange and banana flavors. Test subjects 1 and 2 were given the citrus flavors lime and orange consecutively so perhaps the sour taste influenced their taste perception. Pear was the least distinguishable and was associated with a different type of fruit. Experimental group 1 had a significant decrease in taste when vision was removed. None of the test subjects identified the pear flavor and was associated with other fruits such as kiwi and banana. Test subjects 3-5 identified citrus flavors when they were tasting cherry and vice versa identified cherry when they were tasting the citrus flavors. This observation could have been because the participants did not swallow any water or because they associated the taste with a color. Banana was the most …show more content…
Test subject 2 associated the lime flavor with green. The least distinguishable flavors were pear and orange and banana the most. Orange was associated with other flavors this time such as apple, peach and pure sucrose. Pear was associated with fruits such as blueberry and pineapple. The taste variation could have been because the test subjects swallowed water after ingesting each jelly bean. Overall, banana was the most distinguished flavor compared to the other flavors in each group indicating that perhaps the participants used memory association when tasting the flavor. Furthermore, some of the test subjects had an aversion to the pear flavor and associated it with something unpleasant. The variation in taste reactions suggests taste varies from individuals and can depend on the density in taste receptors on the tongue. Some individuals have a higher density of taste receptors than others therefore have more taste buds