Sensory interaction

• Find a willing partner (not necessarily from the class) to help you with this project.
• Pick several foods – some spicy, some salty, some bitter, some sweet. Try to get some with similar textures e.g., potato and apple.
• Have the other person taste them with his/her eyes blindfolded and his/her nose plugged. See how many he/she can correctly identify. Then let the person taste the same foods with his/her nose unplugged but his/her eyes still blindfolded and see how many he/she can identify. Use at least five different foods.
• Write a one- to two-page paper that includes an introduction explaining what sensory interaction is, followed by a brief description of how people smell and how people taste (e.g., molecules in air reach receptor cells in nasal cavity). Then you should describe the five foods you used in your experiment. Finally summarize your results – what your friend could identify with his/her nose plugged and what he/she could identify with his/her nose unplugged. Comment on whether or not your results showed sensory interaction.