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Smell to Taste

CSEF · 2011 Behavioral & Social Sciences

Nossin Y. Khan, Sonali A. Voleti · Mira Loma High School, Sacramento, Sacramento County

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of this experiment is to see if smell affects taste. Methods/Materials Informed consent was obtained from 24 people. The people were blindfolded and nose plugs were put on to them. They were fed 8 different substances for 8 different tastes (salty, sweet, bitter, sour, minty, herby, spicy, plain). Tastes were recorded. The nose plugs were then taken off but, they were still blindfolded. Then, the people were allowed to smell the eight substances before they had to taste them. Data was recorded again. Results The subjects did better in the test where they were allowed to smell the substance before tasting it. Ages 18-23 did the best on the experiment and ages 50+ and 0-5 got the lowest scores on the experiment. Females got better results because they have more taste buds than males. Conclusions/Discussion We concluded that smell does actually affect taste. This explains why we don't enjoy eating when we are sick because we don't smell the food therefore, we are not enticed by it.

Summary statement

My partner and I experimented if smell affects taste and we found out it does affect the taste because after you eat 3 bites of your food you start to loose your taste but it is smell the allows us to still taste it .

Help received

Honors biology teacher, Mrs. Jacks reviewed our project and helped with the graphs. Mom, Laxmi Voleti, helped with decorating the board and bought the supplies. Parents drove us around.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2011 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry S0420

Resources

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