The influence of response alternatives on sweet intensity

OLGA TAMASI; MARIA F. GLIEMMO; M. PASCUAL; CARMEN CAMPOS; LIA GERSCHENSON; AMALIA CALVIÑO

Portugal

Congreso; 20th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Psychohysics.; 2004

International Society for Psychohysics. Institute of Cognitive Psychology. University of Coimbra, Portugal. Intl Society for Psycophysics

THE INFLUENCE OF RESPONSE ALTERNATIVES ON SWEET INTENSITY     O. Tamasi1, M.F. Gliemmo2,3, M. Pascual1, C. Campos2, L. Gerschenson2,4, and A.M. Calviño1,4 1Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, UBA and IQUIMEFA-CONICET Junín 956, CP 1113 e-mail:  acalvino@ffyb.uba.ar 2Dept. de Industrias, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, UBA, Ciudad Universitaria CP 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina         ABSTRACT     Aqueous model systems of glucose, xylitol and aspartame, presented alone, in binary as well as in ternary mixtures, and  adjusted at pH 3 with citric acid were presented to two groups of subjects. One group of subjects was instructed to rate sweetness. The other group of subjects was instructed to estimate  the total intensity and to divide it into the magnitudes of sweet and sour qualities.  Under both conditions it was observed a significant effect of type of sweetener and aspartame level on sweetness. The triadic response alternative showed  different suppressive  effects of sweeteners on sourness.  An interactive effect of the type of sweetener and level of aspartame on total intensity of the heterogeneous sweet-sour systems was observed.