The Sense of TasteHollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Science
The Sense of Taste
Hollingworth, Harry L. (Harry Levi)
Taste
Daily experience entails many such instances of contrast in the case of
the taste qualities as well. A ripe apple may surprise us by its
unexpected sourness if we come to it direct from a box of bonbons.
Experiments designed to investigate the presence and character of taste
contrasts are especially interesting and their results are in many ways
curious. If, under proper experimental precautions, a salt solution is
applied to one side of the tongue and a drop of tasteless distilled
water is simultaneously applied to the other side, the tasteless water
is reported as sweetish. If, instead of the distilled water, one apply a
sugar solution of such weakness that its taste could not under ordinary
circumstances be recognized, the sweetness becomes clearly apparent.
Under the same circumstances a solution otherwise producing a weak
sensation of sweetness is reported as being “very sweet.” The salt
solution, that is to say, induces by contrast the quality of sweetness
in tasteless substances and enhances the degree of an otherwise weak
quality aroused at another region of the tongue.
In much the same way a sugar solution induces saltiness, or sourness, or
perhaps bitterness, according to the individual, the occasion, and the
circumstances. Sometimes the salt induces a sour instead of the sweet.
The bitter, however, seems unable to induce other qualities by contrast,
and is at least seldom induced by the other qualities.
In this as in other respects the bitter quality seems to show
idiosyncrasies. Thus, it is generally accepted that no papillæ are ever
sensitive only to bitter stimuli. Many primitive languages are said to
contain in their vocabulary no word for bitter: it is not uncommon in
daily experience to find bitter confused with sour; bitter seems to be
especially easily antagonized by certain odors; it does not display
striking contrast phenomena; and its reaction time is exceptionally
slow.
The type of contrast which we have thus described in the case of the
tastes is known as _simultaneous contrast_. Both stimuli are applied at
the same time to different parts of the sense organ. What is known as
_successive_ contrast can also be experimentally produced. Here one of
the stimuli follows the other after an interval in which nothing is
applied or, still better, in which the mouth is carefully rinsed with
water. This is the type of taste contrast with which we are most
familiar in daily life. The same contrasts may be induced experimentally
by this method as result from the simultaneous method. But the inducing
stimuli in this case must be rather more intense than is necessary for
the production of simultaneous contrasts. In much the same way in
perception as in sensation the contrast between two extremes or
opposites is better realized when both are present together than when
one follows the other after an interval.
The general facts of taste contrast are succinctly summarized by
Titchener in the following way:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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