The Sense of Taste: Biology and Psychology!

The Basic Tastes

• Salty• Sweet• Sour • Bitter

• Umami??

MYTH!

Correct Science (From Nature)

Fig. 15-15, p. 368

Aspects of Taste are Learned

• Learned taste aversion

• Cultural taste preferences – spicy

• Young children prefer foods eaten by mom during pregnancy (some evidence)

Taste Varies Biologically Among Individuals

• PTC, Thiourea, Sodium Benzoate

• Best studied in PTC – single gene• Individuals can be homozygous tasters,

heterozygous, or homozygous non-tasters• Gene found in chimps as well!

• Why useful to taste bitter?• Why useful to be heterozygote?

Taste Preferences Seem to Change with Age: Biological Shifts

• NPR Story

Biological Psychology Method: Magnitude Estimation

• Ask subjects to report their experience while varying the stimulus

• When we make a stimulus twice as intense, does the subject perceive it as twice as intense?– Length of line– Brightness of light– Intensity of shock pain– Sweetness of taste??

Fig. 1-15, p. 16

The Relationship Between the Intensity of Sensory Experiences and the Size of the Stimulus Varies Across Senses

Sweetness is like Brightness

• As more sugar as added, we do NOT taste it as twice as sweet

• Will our results support this published finding??