Abstract
This paper is an expository essay on the article” The influence of the feel of product packaging on the perception of the oral-somatosensory texture of food” presented by Betina Piqueras-Fiszman a,b,, Charles Spence (2012). Initial sections of the paper covers the expirmenet and method adopted in the article. The Later sections deals with critique and results of the experiment.
Introduction
The research has focused on the multisensory integration regarding the superior colliculus (SC) of the adult neurons (Betina & Spence, 2012). The core emphasis has been on perception of food texture and it also focuses on what may occur inside an adult mouth and also on the mechanoreceptors which are directly involved in the consumption phase. But it is also important to focus which people are able to evaluate on food texture by using their senses and includes vision via non-oral information. (Foxe, 2002). Researchers and experiments in the past have been able to demonstrate the importance of non-diagnostic and haptic information regarding adult perception. Sensory perception has been stated as “intrinsically related to hedonism”. In this context, the hedonic traits of a product may be perceived through a model and can bias a consumer’s appraisal for quality and also pleasantness of a multisensory product and is also experienced by sensory modalities. Such research also indicates that changes in the hidden qualities of a product’s packaging may be important and can affect a consumer’s approach on the quality of the product. The response varies if the object changes, every object have different qualities and their response differently on objects.
These observations are consistent with the assumption that there is a link between the multisensory integration in individuals, and the superior colliculus neurons, and cross-modality attentive and positioning behaviors. It is also said, that the multisensory enhancement is defined as an increase in the number of compulsions, combined-modality stimuli over that suggested by the most effective unmade response and the absolute magnitude of this improved response was shown to differ significantly (Senkowski & Schneider. et, al., 2008).
Multisensory interactions within the SC neurons are being shown to differ in the symbols to the magnitude, and it is also depending on the change of the spatial and temporal factors and as well as the effectiveness of the modality and its specific stimuli. The multisensory response is inside and out related to the magnitude of the response to the unmade stimuli. And those stimuli that are hard to observed and hard to clear can have the most selfless values at the single neuron (Macaluso, 2006). In this situation the most inspiring of the multisensory stimuli individual search the responses can be suggested the responses that are exceeding the stimuli. For smooth condition, the packages were colored white while for the rough ones, they were covered with sandpaper. The main experiment is to check the pot packaging on the participant’s mind and the quality, taste of the food being assessed. The only limitation of this research is that the participants were not allowed to touch the food.
Method
A total of fifty-eight participants took part in this research who were selected on a random basis and were not provided any information on the type of the experiment or the study to be undertaken.The participants were free of any clinical record of diseases pertaining to their olfactory or gustatory responses. The participants were given eight stimuli in total which consisted of a pot resembling a yogurt and contained two different textural components, , one to stimulate a crunchy stimulus in the form of pieces of biscuits and the other to stimulate aa smooth texture in the form of yogurt.
Experiment
In the experiment, the participants were given a questionnaire to fill up and also were provided a questionnaire regarding the food and were to state the acceptability of the food as “not all all” or “extremely” in terms of creaminess, thickness and the granularity in case of the yogurt and crunchiness, freshness and hardness in terms of the biscuits.The results of the experiment were analyzed by Anova to gather statistical data on the effect of the texture of the packaging on the participants perception of the taste. The participants need to fill the questionnaire as directed,in terms of crunchiness, and hardness. As, the previous research discussed that, a number of elements `textural attributes are positively linked and interdependent, they are still slightly different, and the researchers desired to check the depth to which the appeared haptic cues enriched one or the other. To define acceptability, the participants had to mark their overall feeling using a 9-point hedonic scale, anchored with ‘‘extremely dislike’’ and ‘‘extremely like’’. During the questionnaire filling process, there was no space provided for the member to change the position of the pot down, hence assuring that the members had to hold it throughout. The members were also guided to rinse their mouth out with mineral or natural water during tastings.
For the results, ANOVA tool is used to perform the analysis, the main purpose was to to determine the pot surface texture,on participants perception for the accessing attributes. The appearance of the packaging surface and the texture of the presented items, linked with their interaction, and the member effect were assumed as explanatory variables. When the observation were high, major differences were gathered using Tukey’s test. Differences were assumed significant/major when p <_.05. It is said, that apearance had an effect on the products being assessed. The pot appearance leaves on impact on member’s mind and also hold some importance on the quality of the food being assessed.
Conclusion
The paper is based on one experiment conducted to judge link between the food packaging and food itself. The mian objective was to observe the impact of packaging on food item. Form the experimental analysis it became evident that the ratings made my the participants were influenced by the information that obtained form the senses of their mouth and the hands, but only in those instances where there was some similarity in texture of both the food and the pot has been obtained in case of ratings related to crunchiness and hardiness. The experiment could give better results if they would use new and advance technology. Using a technology is really a good idea as they could ask the participants to fill the questionnaire online as it helps in gathering the data digitally and it would help the data analyst to provide better results really fast.
Critique/Limitations of the research
One of the main limitations of the research was that all of the participants of the research (58) were adults and due to this reason the research has only focused on the perception and behavior of the adults. Besides ,the tactile properties of the product may have some influence which is worth studying.
References
Betina Piqueras., Charles Spence. (2012). The influence of the feel of product packaging on the perception of the oral-somatosensory texture of food. Retrived: 16-march-2012. < www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual>
Foxe, J.,Wylie, G., Martinez, A., Schroeder., C. E., Javitt, D. C., Guilfoyle, D., Murray, M. M. (2002). Auditory-somatosensory multisensory processing in auditory association cortex: an fMRI study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 88(1), 540-543.
Senkowski, D., Schneider, T. R., Foxe, J. J., & Engel, A. K. (2008). Crossmodal binding through neural coherence: implications for multisensory processing. Trends in neurosciences, 31(8), 401-409.
Macaluso, E. (2006). Multisensory processing in sensory-specific cortical areas. The neuroscientist, 12(4), 327-338.
Budinger, E., Heil, P., Hess, A., & Scheich, H. (2006). Multisensory processing via early cortical stages: connections of the primary auditory cortical field with other sensory systems. Neuroscience, 143(4), 1065-1083.
