EXPERIMENT OUTLINE:
Test if eliminating the senses of touch, sight, and smell affect our ability to taste or sense texture when trying foods:
- Subject wears blindfold, is not allowed to touch the food, and plugs nose while eating
- Subject is given small pieces of 12 foods
- Foods are grouped in pairs of 2 according to similar textures in order to ensure experiment works off of taste as much as texture
- Subject will eat the food and see if he can identify it
- If unable to identify, subject may unplug nose and try identifying the food again
- Subject will then eat the second food in the group that is similar without receiving verification on the identification of the first and see it they can identify it
- Subject continues experiment for all 6 food groups
EXPERIMENT RESULTS:
Test 1: Frito vs. Tortilla Chip
Frito: Wheat thin… no, tortilla chip. Unplugged nose: Frito
Tortilla Chip: No idea. Unplugged nose: Tortilla Chip
Test 2: Almond vs. Granola
Almond: (Off of Texture)… Nut… No clue what kind. Unplugged nose: Definitely in trail mix… cashew?
Granola: No clue. Unplugged nose: No clue, but can taste it now.
Test 3: White Bread vs. Zucchini Bread
White Bread: (Off of texture)… bread, but can’t taste it. Unplugged nose: Bread.
Zucchini Bread: What could possibly be that soft? No idea. Unplugged nose: Zucchini Bread.
Test 4: Carrot vs. Celery
Carrot: (Off of texture) Carrot, but can’t taste it. Unplugged nose: Carrot.
Celery: (Off of texture and sound) Celery, but can’t taste it. Unplugged nose: Instantly taste celery.
Test 5: Tomato vs. Grape
Tomato: (Off of texture) Grape, but can’t taste it. Unplugged nose: *shutter* Tomato.
Grape: (Off of texture) Grape, but can’t taste it. Unplugged nose: Grape.
Test 6: Pepperoni vs. Cheese
Pepperoni: Salty… nasty w/o smell. No idea. Unplugged nose: Good!... Jerky? No, pepperoni.
Cheese: (Off of texture) Cheese… Once I said that I could sort of taste it. Unplugged nose: Cheese.
EXPERIMENT ANALYSIS:
- Not being able to smell did seem to inhibit the taste of the foods, however most of them he was able to still identify them off of the texture.
- When he unplugged his nose, he could identify almost all of the foods.
- He had tried this before while being able to see the food, but it didn’t work. This time it did work, so we have a theory that seeing something before-hand gives us a preconceived notion of how something tastes.
- Sometimes once he figured it out by the texture, he could almost start to taste it. We think supplying the name allowed his brain to start filling in for what he should be tasting.
- Some things that he doesn’t like normally were fine without all of his senses, while some things he normally loves were gross without all the senses.
- If doing this for a future assignment, I would buy different foods, because some stuff he was able to guess combined off of the texture and knowing what we had at home.
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