Subjective intensity of mineral taste in water.

Abstract

An experiment determined the ability of a power function to summarize ratings given solutions of NaCl, MgCl2, and Na2SO4. Sixteen Ss rated 9 solutions of a salt using a magnitude-estimation procedure. A separate experiment was devoted to each of the 3 salts studied. Results indicated that a power function, [psi] = kn, could account for a substantial portion of the variance in the ratings given. Further analyses of individual ratings showed that power functions varied significantly between Ss. It was proposed that the individual variation could be accommodated by an analysis of variance model.