Scientific Method 1

Topic: Vision affecting sense of taste.

Question: Does sight affect the sense of taste?

Background Information:
- If you cannot see you can have the taste of what you eat or smell, you can associate with the image that you have in your brain (only if you have the perception/image registered in past).
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_vision_affect_the_sense_of_taste

- Over the past few years, scientists have been busy overturning many of the old ideas about how we perceive flavour. The research is having repercussions in the food and catering industry - and could be invaluable to parents struggling with mealtime toddler wars.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/14/1100384418397.html?from=storylhs

- http://www.colormatters.com/taste.html

- Smell and taste are linked through the vomeronasal organ. No sense of smell would mean no taste because 'taste' is smell plus the ability to detect sweet, sour and salty on various parts of the tongue. Sight is more of a trigger for appetite and does not directly affect the ability to taste although some say that 'blind tasting' trains the senses to appreciate flavours.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_effect_does_sight_and_smell_have_on_taste

- http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2001-11/1006904357.Gb.r.html

Hypothesis: I hypothesize that the vision of someone would affect the taste. For example, lets say someone didn't like eating fruits and vegetables. So, their parent(s) mixed them in a blender to see if their child would take it then. The child takes it and realizes that it tastes pretty good without knowing that their mother/father actually just blended fruits and vegetables in the blender. Another example, let's say someone had a piece of steak in front of them. They were delighted to be served the hot juicy steak. Once they cut a piece off and put it in their mouth, it tastes bitter and raw. This is how it would affect it because at first they thought it was going to be hot and juicy but as soon as they took a bite, they didn't like what they were eating.

Procedure:

1. First i will gather a few people.
2. I will have them do two testings.
3. The first one that i will have them take is the tasting test.
4. I'll ask them if they would have a certain food with another certain food and see what they say.
5. Then I will have them actually taste the food that I just asked and see if they like it or not.
6. I will observe the results and collect the data.
7. The second test that I will have them take is the guessing test.
8. First I'll get samples of food.
9. Then I will have them blindfolded and have them taste it and see if they can guess what it is.
10. I will then observe and collect the data.

Materials:

• Volunteers to be experimented in the tasting test.
• Something to blind fold them with.
• Samples of food.
• Volunteers to be experimented in the guessing test.

Experiment: Do the experiment.

Data/Results:
Tasting Test:

Food	Before they tasted	After they tasted	Gender
Cookie/Hot Sauce	Wouldn't eat it	Liked	Male
Grape/Syrup	Would eat it	Liked	Male
Garlic/Fruit Bar	Wouldn't eat it	Disliked	Female
Milk/Pepsi	Wouldn't eat it	Disliked	Male
Sheesh Kabob/Syrup	Wouldn't eat it	Liked	Female
Pickle/Pudding	Wouldn't eat it	Disliked	Female
Chips/Pudding	Would eat it	Disliked	Female
Jelly/Chips	Wouldn't eat it	Liked	Female
Apple/Ketchup	Wouldn't eat it	Disliked	Female
Pickle/Mustard	Wouldn't eat it	Was OK	Male
Apples/Jelly	Wouldn't eat it	Disliked	Male
Orange/Pudding	Wouldn't eat it	Disliked	Male
Carmel/Orange	Wouldn't eat it	Was OK	Male
Orange/Jelly	Wouldn't eat it	Liked	Female

Guessing Test:

Food	Guessed	Gender	Correct/Incorrect
Cheese	Cheese	Female	Correct
Bread	Bread	Female	Correct
Olive	Olive	Female	Correct
Frosting	Ice Cream	Female	Incorrect
Rice Crispy	Chex	Female	Incorrect
Peanut Butter	Peanut butter	Female	Correct
Coffee Creamer	Tea	Female	Incorrect
Fruit Punch Mix	Strawberry	Female	Incorrect
Pepper	Pepper	Female	Correct
Cheese	Cheese	Male	Correct
Bread	Bread	Male	Correct
Olive	Olive	Male	Correct
Frosting	Peanut Butter	Male	Incorrect
Rice Crispy	Rise Crispy	Male	Correct
Peanut Butter	Peanut Butter	Male	Correct
Coffee Creamer	Sugar	Male	Incorrect
Fruit Punch Mix	Pixy Stick	Male	Incorrect
Pepper	Pepper	Male	Correct

Conclusion:
My hypothesis, which was I do think vision effects the sense of taste, was correct. Sight(vision) effects the sense of taste because when I was experimenting on whether they would eat this with this or that with that, most of them said no because they thought it looked nasty or would taste nasty but when they tried it, they actually found it to be good. Although my hypothesis was correct, I still made some mistakes. What I could've done to make my experiment better was I could've had more interesting food combinations and could've thought of another test to do. To get better accurate results in my experiment, I could get more people to do my experiment and get more people to taste the same food instead of a whole other combination.