Hedonic Differences as a Function of Number of Samples Evaluated

SUMMARY: This study investigated the limit of the number of samples that can reliably evaluated for preference in a single laboratory test session. Multiple samples were presented to 200 subjects randomly assigned to five conditions. Two critical samples were included under each condition and the number of other samples varied from zero to four. Two replications of each set were evaluated by each subject in a single session without his knowledge that samples were repeated. The total number of samples for the five experiments were 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12. The experiment was run separately with milk, soup and gravy base and maple syrup. There was no evidence that serving up to 12 samples in a single session adversely affected preference discrimination.