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Updated: May 29, 2026
04:47
Olfactory Context Dependent Memory: Direct Presentation of Odorants
Published on: September 18, 2018
Flavor-intensity perception: effects of stimulus context
Lawrence E Marks1, Timothy G Shepard, Kelly Burger
1John B. Pierce Laboratory, 290 Congress Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519, USA. marks@jbpierce.org
Physiology & Behavior
|September 21, 2011
Summary
Flavor perception is influenced by context. This study found that gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell) components of flavor mixtures are affected separately by context, impacting overall flavor intensity judgments.
Area of Science:
- Sensory science
- Chemosensation
- Flavor perception
Background:
- Stimulus context influences gustatory and olfactory intensity judgments.
- Contextual effects on flavor are known to be modality-specific.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if context exerts separate effects on gustatory and olfactory components within flavor mixtures.
- To determine the impact of varying sucrose and citral concentrations on perceived flavor intensity.
Main Methods:
- Subjects rated the perceived intensity of 16 mixtures of sucrose (gustatory) and citral (olfactory) across different concentration conditions.
- Two contextual conditions were employed: high sucrose/low citral and low sucrose/high citral.
Main Results:
- Perceived flavor intensity generally followed linear addition of sucrose and citral, with deviations at high citral concentrations.
- Contextual changes induced contrast effects, reducing perceived intensity when contextual concentrations were high.
- Near-threshold citral perception showed no contextual effects.
Conclusions:
- Contextual effects on flavor perception appear to arise independently within gustatory and olfactory sensory channels.
- These separate channel effects occur before the integration of gustatory and olfactory information into a unified flavor perception.
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