DOES SIGHT EFFECT
TASTE?
By: Thyme Powell
PerioD: 8
01/11/2014
QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS
QUESTION
 Does sight effect taste?
HYPOTHESIS
 If I put different colors of food coloring in sprite then
people will think that the colors will correspond with the
different flavors because sight effects taste.
RESEARCH AND BACKGROUND
 “To our brains, "taste" is actually a fusion of a food's taste, smell
[sight] and touch into a single sensation. This combination of
qualities takes place because during chewing or sipping, all sensory
information originates from a common location: whatever it is we're
snacking on. Further, "flavor" is a more accurate term for what we
commonly refer to as taste; therefore, smell not only influences but is
an integral part of flavor.”(How Does the…)
 Multiple experiments have shown us that “…what we see can override
what we think we taste.”
MATERIALS AND VARIABLES
MATERIALS
 Four liters of soda
 Red, yellow, blue, greed food
dye
 Small paper cups
 One quart of water
 People
VARIABLES
 INDEPENDENT: sprite with red,
green, yellow, blue, and purple
dye
 DEPENDENT: the peoples’ guess
of the color’s flavors
 Control: people could recognize
the taste of sprite when the
color wasn’t changed.
 Constant: all soda is sprite
PROCEDURES
1)
Pour 120 ml. of sprite in five cups
2)
Put one drop of food coloring in each cup (yellow, red, blue,
purple, and green)
3)
Mix so there will be no sign of food coloring.
4)
Pour 120 ml. of water into one cup.
5)
Have subjects try each color and take a drink of water in between
each one.
6)
After tasting each, have subjects record their guess of flavor for each
color.
DATA
Red
Green
Yellow
Blue
Purple
#1
Orange
Sprite
Pineapple
Sprite
Grape
#2
Strawberry
Lime
Lemon
Blueberry
Grape
#3
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Pepsi
#4
Strawberry
Sprite
Lemonade
Sprite
Grape
#5
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
#6
Orange
Sprite
Sprite
Grape
Grape
#7
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
#8
Sprite
Sprite
Pineapple/ma
ngo/peach
Blueberry/
bubblegum
grape
#9
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Sprite
Grape
#10
Strawberry
Lime
Lemon
Blue
raspberry
Grape
MORE DATA
The number of correct guesses per color
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
# of correct guesses
Red
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
OBSERVATIONS
More than half of the guesses were correct; 26
out of the 50 guesses. Most people were not
deceived by the different colors.
The guesses that were wrong were of flavors that
are usually used to represent that flavor. For
example, purple represents grape.
CONCLUSION
My hypothesis was not supported because
although the color of the sprite was altered,
more people than not, could tell that the
tastes were the same.
MY SOURCES
How does the way food looks or its smell
influence taste?. Scientific American. Web. Jan. 11,
 ---.
2014.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ex
perts-how-does-sight-smell-affect-taste
 Murphy, Cheryl G. Looks Can Taste Deceiving: How
Color Can Affect Taste. Scientific American. Oct. 29,
2013. Web. Jan. 11, 2014.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guestblog/2013/10/29/looks-can-taste-deceiving-howcolor-can-affect-taste/