The Perception of Materials through Oral Sensation

Philip D. Howes, Supinya Wongsriruksa, Zoe Laughlin, Harry J. Witchel, Mark Miodownik, Sliman J. Bensmaia
2014 PLoS ONE  
This paper presents the results of a multimodal study of oral perception conducted with a set of material samples made from metals, polymers and woods, in which both the somatosensory and taste factors were examined. A multidimensional scaling analysis coupled with subjective attribute ratings was performed to assess these factors both qualitatively and quantitatively. The perceptual somatosensory factors of warmth, hardness and roughness dominated over the basic taste factors, and roughness
more » ... observed to be a less significant sensation compared to touch-only experiments. The perceptual somatosensory ratings were compared directly with physical property data in order to assess the correlation between the perceived properties and measured physical properties. In each case, a strong correlation was observed, suggesting that physical properties may be useful in industrial design for predicting oral perception.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0105035 pmid:25136793 pmcid:PMC4138173 fatcat:bx3ks7axu5ccvkryd6qbaj6yyy