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R E S E A R C H Open Access
Plate shape and colour interact to influence taste
and quality judgments
Peter C Stewart
*
and Erica Goss
Abstract
Background: Research has demonstrated that factors external to the food source can influence consumers’
perceptions of food. Contextual factors including cutlery or tableware (for example, size and composition), the
atmosphere (for example, noise levels and odours), and packaging (for example, shape and colour) have all been
shown to influence the perceptual experience. Plateware has also been shown to influence taste perception since
ratings of a dessert (strawberry mousse) were modified by plate colour but not by plate shape. In the current study,
which used a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, the effect of plate colour (black versus white) and plate shape (round
versus square) on taste perception is re-examined. Through sweetness, intensity, quality, and liking ratings of
cheesecake, the current study extends the previous investigation to include an examination of the plate colour by
plate shape interaction while using plates with more angular corners.
Results: Judgments made on simple elemental properties (sweetness and flavour intensity) and higher level
compound property judgments (food quality or food liking) were shown to be differentially influenced by the
interaction of plate colour and plate shape. Both elemental and compound property judgments were heightened
by white round plates while compound judgments were also increased when food was presented on black square
plates.
Conclusions: The results suggest that plate colour and shape influence taste perception but not in a straight-
forward manner and instead the influence depends on the interaction of the two variables. Depending on which
attribute of the perceptual experience is more important, knowledge of this interaction could be used
advantageously by the culinary community.
Keywords: Taste perception, Plate, Shape, Colour, Sweetness, Flavour intensity, Food quality, Cross-modal, Preferences
Background
Most people would correctly say that taste is determined
by more than just taste receptors on the tongue but they
may be surprised by the extent to which this is true. Along
with the gustatory response, it is commonly recognized
that what a food smells like (olfactory cues), how it looks
(visual cues), and how it feels in your mouth or hands
(somatosensory cues) all influence the resulting perception
of taste. However, it is not only the attributes of the food
that influence taste perception, and instead, environmen-
tal/contextual factors also greatly impact the resultant per-
ception of taste. The current study examined two factors
external to the food source, plate shape and plate colour,
for their effect on perceptual judgments of sweetness, in-
tensity, quality, and liking.
Research has shown that the manipulation of a variety
of food-specific cue types will influence various aspects of
taste perception. Olfactory cues have been shown to ma-
nipulate our perception of taste with a number of studies
having shown an enhancement of sweetness ratings in re-
sponse to pairing a food with odours usually associated
with sweetness [1-3]. Additionally, in two experiments,
Stevenson, Prescott, and Boakes [4] paired 20 different
odours with sucrose taste solutions (E1) and citric acid
taste solutions (E2). They found that odours with a strong
learned association with sweetness (for example, caramel)
enhanced sweetness ratings and suppressed sour ratings,
thereby showing the importance of learning and memory
in taste perception. In a more recent investigation,
Djordjevic, Zatorre, and Jones-Gotman [5] also found an
* Correspondence: pstewart@grenfell.mun.ca
Psychology Program, Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, University Avenue, Corner Brook, NL A2H 6P9, Canada
© 2013 Stewart and Goss; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Stewart and Goss Flavour 2013, 2:27
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odour-induced change in taste perception (OICTP) when
they paired olfactory and gustatory stimuli. Specifically,
the smell of strawberries led to a sweetness enhancement
and a soy sauce odour increased ratings of saltiness.
The texture of food has also been shown to modify the
perceptual experience [6-8]. Cook, Hollowood, Linforth,
and Taylor [9] found that ratings of sweetness were sig-
nificantly lessened in thicker solutions. Additionally,
Walker and Prescott [10] showed that apple juice flavour
was rated less sweet in a more viscous solution. Further,
texture has been shown to directly and indirectly, via its
influence on chewing parameters, influence flavour re-
lease (see Salles et al. [11] for a review).
Shape is closely related to texture and certain attributes
of food seem to reliably share a synaesthetic relationship
with shapes. Synaesthesia is a phenomenon whereby the
stimulation of one sensory modality simultaneously pro-
duces an accompanying stimulation in a second sensory
modality. Cytowic [12] discusses a synaesthete who tasted
shapes. For this individual, an amateur chef who cooked
according to the shape of the food rather than following
any recipes, shapes had tastes and certain shapes tasted
better than others. Although synaesthesia typically refers
to a non-standard ‘crossing’of the senses, it seems that
when it comes to food we may all be synaesthetes to some
extent. Research in non-synaesthetes has shown that most
individuals have shape associations with certain food qual-
ities. For example, wines are often described as having a
rounded or pointed taste [13]. Particularly relevant to the
current study, it has also been shown that sweetness is
often associated with round shapes while bitterness and
saltiness are associated with angular shapes [14,15].
Whether this flavour-shape association extends to envir-
onmental factors external to the food source is one focus
of the current study.
Perhaps the most profound manipulation of the per-
ceptual experience is driven by visual input. Specifically,
it has been repeatedly shown that modifying the colour
of a standard food influences the taste perception of that
food [16-19]. Garber, Hyatt, and Starr [20] examined the
effect of incongruent colours (and labelling) on taste per-
ception of noncarbonated fruit drinks. By manipulating
the colour of an orange-flavoured drink (orange versus
purple versus clear) the researchers showed that partici-
pants were significantly less likely to correctly identify the
flavour if the beverage was coloured purple or clear. They
also reported an interaction between stimulus colour and
package labelling for ratings of naturalness/expensiveness.
This suggested that external factors, factors not directly
related to the food itself, can influence perception of
higher level cognitive judgments [20]. Whether this colour
influence generalises to environmental stimuli, such as the
colour of plate the food is presented on, is examined in
the current investigation.
Recently, perception research has supported that the
environment or context surrounding the food has been
shown to be a significant modulator of taste perception
[21]. Specific contextual variables include, but are not
limited to, background music [22]; the size, weight, and
composition of cutlery [23]; a product’s packaging [24];
colour lighting [25]; and menu item naming [26].
An additional environmental variable that has come
under recent scrutiny was plateware [27]. In two separ-
ate experiments, the researchers examined the potential
influence of plate colour (E1: black versus white) and
plate shape (E2: round versus square versus triangular)
on ratings of sweetness, intensity, quality, and liking. All
attribute ratings, except quality ratings, were shown to
be significantly increased when the strawberry mousse
was presented on white plates when compared to black
plates. However, contrary to expectations, plate shape
had no significant influence on attribute ratings. In
addition to concluding that plate colour is a significant
contributor to taste perception, the authors suggested
that the jury was still out on plate shape since their
plates may have been somewhat less angular than de-
sired due to the plate corners being rounded. Further,
Piqueras-Fiszman et al. [27] did not examine the inter-
action between plate colour and plate shape.
Like the Piqueras-Fiszman et al.studies,themajority
of research into taste perception has taken a single at-
tribute approach and only manipulated one environ-
mental variable per experiment. It has been suggested
that an important goal of future research should be
to examine the simultaneous interaction of two or
more environmental variables [21]. Continuing from the
Piqueras-Fiszman et al. work, the current study replicated
and extended the aforementioned findings using plates
with more angular corners and by employing a factorial
design. Results revealed significant interactions be-
tween plate shape and plate colour across each of the
rated attributes.
Results
Aware that we had relatively small sample sizes in each
experimental group (n = 12), we felt it important to first
examine the experimental groups’composition for any
pre-existing differences that may have confounded the
results. We felt that these preliminary analyses were ne-
cessary since, as stated and referenced multiple times in
the paper’s introduction, many variables can exert a large
influence on perception. All analyses were independent
measures analyses and were tested against an alpha level
of .05. Sample sizes, means, and standard deviations
displayed as a function of gender and plate type can be
seen in Table 1. Group composition did not significantly
differ as a function of age or gender
a
suggesting our
groups were well matched in terms of age and gender.
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As a result, these variables were dropped from any fur-
ther analyses
.
Using two separate 2 × 2 (colour × shape) ANOVAs,
we tested if the groups differed in regard to state hun-
ger levels and in their general regard for cheesecake.
There were no significant main effects or interactions
for either dependent variable, again suggesting rela-
tively well matched groups.
Analyses of attribute ratings
Separate 2 (colour) × 2 (shape) independent measures
ANOVAs were conducted with each attribute (sweetness,
intensity, quality, and liking) as the dependent variable. All
analyses were tested at a significance level of .05 with a
Bonferroni correction applied.
Regarding sweetness ratings, there was a significant
main effect of colour with samples on white plates being
rated as sweeter than those on black plates, F(1, 44) =
8.42, P<.05, η
p
2
= .16, but there was no main effect of
plate shape. Most importantly however, was the presence
of a significant colour × shape interaction, F(1, 44) =
6.70, P<.05, η
p
2
= .13. This interaction suggested that
round white plates were rated significantly sweeter than
square white plates (t(22) = 3.04, P<.05) while there was
no difference between the plate shapes for black plates
(see Figure 1a).
For food intensity ratings, both the colour and shape
main effects were significant; however, the significant
interaction, F(1,44) = 9.72, P<.05, η
p
2
= .18, between the
variables seemed to qualify the main effects. As with
sweetness ratings, when compared to round black and
square white plates, intensity ratings were significantly
higher for round white plates, t(22) = 4.12, P<.05 and
t(22) = 4.01, P<.05 respectively (see Figure 1b).
There were no significant main effects for either colour
or shape on ratings of quality however, there was a signifi-
cant interaction, F(1, 44) = 13.30, P<.05, η
p
2
=.23.Post
hoc tests revealed that three of the four pairings were sig-
nificant (round white versus round black: t(22) = 3.28;
round white versus square white: t(22) = 2.61; round black
versus square black: t(22) = −2.55) and the fourth pairing
(square white versus square black: t(22) = −1.84, P=.08)
approached significance (see Figure 1c).
Similar to quality ratings, there were no main effects
of liking ratings but there was a significant interaction, F
(1, 44) = 7.29, P<.05, η
p
2
= .14 (see Figure 1d). Post hoc
tests revealed a significant colour effect for round plates
(t(22) = 2.10) and a significant shape effect for black
plates (t(22) = −2.43). The two other comparisons did
not reach statistical significance (square white versus
square black: P= .09; round white versus square white:
P= .12).
Table 1 Group characteristics and attribute descriptive statistics as a function of plate colour, plate shape, and
participant gender (n = 48)
Variable White round White square Black round Black square
Male
n (N = 27) 6894
Age (years) 20.50 (2.20) 20.50 (2.20) 21.44 (5.48) 20.50 (3.70)
Sweetness (%) 77.50 (10.60) 55.04 (13.24) 49.46 (13.60) 63.31 (10.35)
Intensity (%) 77.87 (14.38) 38.37 (20.05) 47.49 (21.12) 50.81 (20.60)
Quality (%) 82.62 (21.78) 70.30 (20.50) 66.61 (18.98) 70.43 (18.95)
Liking of sample (%) 85.48 (24.38) 70.09 (24.62) 71.92 (12.42) 87.50 (8.34)
Hunger (%) 44.27 (16.71) 53.43 (22.24) 45.88 (19.08) 65.32 (26.75)
Liking in general (%) 85.93 (11.60) 59.81 (19.20) 71.15 (21.31) 77.96 (19.98)
Female
n (N = 21) 6438
Age (years) 23.67 (6.77) 20.75 (0.96) 19.67 (2.52) 27.63 (13.00)
Sweetness (%) 68.37 (18.27) 59.41 (7.04) 55.38 (16.83) 51.21 (17.24)
Intensity (%) 72.96 (21.44) 58.33 (20.03) 45.70 (21.28) 50.94 (24.37)
Quality (%) 93.01 (9.52) 68.95 (7.32) 61.82 (5.13) 87.37 (9.10)
Liking of sample (%) 87.99 (13.64) 77.28 (23.84) 76.52 (14.03) 86.63 (18.47)
Hunger (%) 30.01 (29.28) 56.32 (31.18) 42.65 (7.83) 38.64 (32.62)
Liking in general (%) 96.33 (4.69) 81.18 (16.87) 78.49 (7.11) 91.47 (14.00)
Total N=48
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The potential influences of hunger and general regard for
cheesecake
Moskowitz et al. [28] showed that after a satiating intake
of a glucose load, participants’ratings of pleasantness for
subsequently presented sweet stimuli differed from par-
ticipants who were sated from a standard breakfast or
lunch. Although the current study did not gather very
specific hunger-related information, to control for gen-
eral hunger effects, we did collect a rating of state hun-
ger. We also collected data pertaining to how much
people generally liked cheesecake since it seemed likely
that people who like a particular food will rate it differ-
ently than those who dislike the food or like it to a lesser
extent. To examine these possibilities we conducted 2 × 2
analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) using ratings of hun-
ger and general regard cheesecake as separate covariates
for each of the four attributes (sweetness, liking, qual-
ity, and liking).
Neither self-reported levels of hunger nor levels of
general cheesecake regard were significant covariates in
analyses of sweetness or quality (P>.05). However, both
hunger levels and cheesecake regard levels were signifi-
cant covariates when intensity ratings were analysed.
With that said, and importantly, the interaction between
plate colour and plate shape on intensity ratings
remained significant when accounting for hunger levels,
F(1, 43) = 8.65, P<.05. When accounting for variance in
intensity ratings due to general cheesecake regard, the
interaction between plate shape and colour, F(1, 43) =
2.66, P= .11, was no longer significant although both
main effects remained significant.
Interestingly, the strong interaction observed between
plate colour and plate shape on liking ratings of the
cheesecake sample was not influenced by the inclusion
of hunger as a covariate but was completely nullified by
the inclusion of participants’general regard for cheese-
cake as a covariate, F(1, 43) = .45, Pco.51. This suggests
that it is quite important to account for personal taste
when analysing data of this sort.
Discussion
The current investigation examined the influence that
plate shape and colour may have on the perceived sweet-
ness, intensity, quality, and liking of a portion of cheese-
cake. It has been shown in the past that there is a white
plate (over black) advantage but that plate shape did not
significantly modulate attribute ratings [27]. Results of
the current study, specifically the significant or near
Figure 1 Significant plate colour by plate shape interactions on each of the attribute ratings. (a) Sweetness ratings: Food eaten on white
round plates was rated significantly sweeter than that eaten on white square plates. (b) Intensity ratings: Food eaten from white round plates
was rated significantly more intense than that eaten on white square plates. (c) Quality ratings: Food eaten on white round plates and black
square plates was rated of significantly higher quality than that eaten on white square and black round plates. (d) Liking ratings: Food eaten on
white round plates and black square plates was liked significantly more than that eaten on white square and black round plates. However, after
considering participants’general regard for cheesecake, this interaction for liking ratings was negated.
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significant interactions across all attributes, suggest that
both plate shape and plate colour are important but also
that the relationship is anything but straightforward.
We have chosen to discuss these findings in terms of
elemental versus compound judgments. By a compound
judgment (for example, a judgment about quality or lik-
ing) we are referring to a higher level, gestalt judgment
that is made by considering a number of individual
elemental judgments (that is, judgments of sweetness,
intensity, look, smell, etcetera) in order to come to what
Delwiche [29] referred to as an emergent phenomenon.
For example, when a quality judgment is made about a
particular food, it seems likely that the final perception
emerges from a combination of the look, smell, taste,
context, and other elemental properties of the food. It is
important to note that we are by no means suggesting
that an elemental judgment is done on the basis of only
one sensory modality; the background of this paper
already suggested this is almost certainly not the case.
We are rather saying that there are far fewer modalities
involved with an elemental judgment than with a com-
pound judgment. That is, people almost certainly judged
sweetness by interpreting gustatory, visual, and olfactory
input but it is less likely that quality or liking consider-
ations factored into a sweetness rating. With that said, it
is possible that there is an entirely nested reciprocal rela-
tionship between all these factors and future research
could determine the validity of this possibility.
As can be seen in Figure 1(a,b), for elemental judg-
ments (that is, sweetness and intensity) there was a clear
white round plate enhancement suggesting that food
served on this shape and colour plate leads to an in-
crease in perceived sweetness and intensity. Although
this needs to be extended to include different foods and
plate attributes, this perceptual difference may have ben-
efits to the food industry. We saw an approximate 20%
increase in perceived sweetness and a 30% rating in-
crease in intensity when food was served on a white
round plate. Perhaps an unsweetened or less sweet des-
sert when served on a white round plate would be better
received than if it was served on a plate of a different
colour and shape. Anecdotally, diabetics often complain
that the only desserts they can eat do not taste sweet
enough or taste bad due to the artificial sweeteners used.
Potentially, the combination of a low sugar dessert on a
white round plate would lead an improvement in the
overall perception. Conversely, a common foodstuff that
may be viewed as being too sweet could be served on a
square white plate or a black plate to possibly dampen
the perceived sweetness.
The results show a somewhat different story for com-
pound judgments (that is, quality and liking). Figure 1 (c,d)
shows that although there is still a white round plate
advantage for ratings of quality and liking, there is also
an advantage for square black plates. Since the partici-
pants’general liking of cheesecake seemed to explain
the interaction effect observed for liking ratings, we
limit our further discussion to the quality interaction.
We contend that the white round plate advantage in
quality judgments is being driven by elemental judg-
ments that are perceptually increased by white round
plates. For example, in this study we have shown that
perceived sweetness and intensity are increased by the
presentation of food on white round plates and it seems
possible, if not likely, that other factors that were not
measured in this experiment also show this white
round plate preference. Quality being a compound
judgment would be the sum of these elemental judg-
ments and the end result would be a more positive
quality judgment for food presented on white round
plates. We further contend that this is a likely explan-
ation for the square black plate advantage also obtained
for judgments of quality. According to the Ecological
Valence Theory (EVT), in regard to colour, our prefer-
ence for a particular colour is determined by a sum
total of our past experience with that colour, experience
not necessarily specific to the object currently being
perceived [30]. Humans tend to prefer colours that
summon implicitly positive cognitive associations while
disliking colours that spur the opposite. It seems rea-
sonable that this would also extend to and combine
with shape, although we are aware of no studies dir-
ectly assessing this. Perhaps square black objects and
white round objects have positive connotations when it
comes to assessments of quality. Although this notion
has yet to be extended to food, Schloss, Strauss, and
Palmer [31] found that pure black (or white) T-shirts,
dress shirts, ties/scarves, and squares were preferred
over any shade of grey and that black ties/scarves were
preferred. They suggested that for many objects people
preferred subdued colours rather than flashy colours
and that this preference was likely determined from ex-
perience with the object and/or colour. It is important
to also consider that black is often seen and used in adver-
tising to denote sophistication, luxuriousness, elegance,
and quality. However, these potential associations with
blackness do not aid in much in the explanation of black
square plates. With that said, we suggest that the black
square plate advantage in quality judgments may be due
to the sum total of experience driven preferences. It would
be interesting for future research to try and tease apart
this plate effect using the EVT methodologies.
It is also possible that something as simple as the de-
gree of familiarity is influencing participant attribute rat-
ings. It seems likely that of the four plate types, white
round plates are the most familiar and black square
plates are the most novel. Sheau-Fen, Sun-May, and
Yu-Ghee [32] found that higher levels of familiarity were
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positively related with higher levels of perceived quality
for a number of store brand consumer items. An op-
posing finding, yet actually complimentary for our pur-
poses, is that consumer items that were judged to be
unique or novel due to minor manipulations are judged
as more desirable than the typical item [33]. Further-
more, Bornstein [34] concluded that although it is gen-
erally reproductively advantageous to prefer the typical
to the novel it is at times advantageous (that is, during
child development) to favour novel stimuli. Marrying
these ideas together, the enhanced ratings observed for
the food eaten from the white plates may be the result
of familiarity while the obtained quality and liking en-
hancements for the black square plates may be due to
novelty effects.
It is also known that the order in which participants
complete questionnaire items can influence their answers
to the questions. Malhotra [35] showed that ratings on
simple questions, questions that are not challenging and
take little effort, were susceptible to order effects. Since all
participants in this study completed the attribute ratings
in the same order (that is, sweetness followed by intensity
followed by quality followed by liking), it is possible that
each subsequent rating was influenced by the previous
leaving sweetness ratings the only purely independent rat-
ing of the four. Without replicating the experiment we
cannot know what effect this would have on the current
data. However, because this was a between-subjects design
and participants only viewed one plate type, there is no
reason to predict that any potential order effect would be
different for the black square group compared to any
other group but future investigations may benefit from an
order counterbalancing or randomization of rating items.
Although the square and round plates were of identical
widths, the surface area of the round plates (572 cm
2
)
was less than the square plates (729 cm
2
). Since the di-
mensions of our cake sample were consistent and we
didfindawhiteround plate enhancement across all
ratings and a black square enhancement for quality and
liking ratings, it is possible that both were surface
area effects. Our data cannot rule out this possibility.
Although a previous study by Rolls et al.[36]showed
that food consumption was not different when served
on plates of different sizes, this finding is not specific
to taste judgments.
Finally, as previously stated, the Piqueras-Fiszman et
al. [27] study reported no effect of plate shape on ratings
of a strawberry mousse whereas the current study re-
ports a new finding, a significant plate colour by plate
shape interaction for all attributes. We have already
mentioned a number of possible explanations for the
pattern of results observed but it is important to address
why a shape influence is observed in this study but not
the previous [27]. Three reasons stand out for this. First,
the authors of the previously mentioned study suggested
that their square plates were rounded at the corners
leading to a softening of any possible shape influences.
We used square plates that had much sharper points at
the corners. Perhaps the effect of shape would have been
observed in the Piqueras-Fiszman et al. study if plates
similar to our own were used [27]. Second, the manifest-
ation of a shape effect in the current study could be
because the food sample we used was different. The
multisensory influences discussed may be food specific
and where the previous authors used strawberry mousse,
we used cheesecake. This food stuff difference alone
may be enough to explain the shape influence observed
here but it could also be a function of the shape of the
food, the colour of the food, or some interaction of these
variables. Lyman [37] suggested that taste perception
may be influenced by figure-ground (that is, food-plate)
contrasts. That is, perceptions of taste may vary between
foods of different colours, especially when served on dif-
ferent colour plates. Parallel possibilities may also exist
for shape variables. As such, the differences in findings
between Piqueras-Fiszman et al. [27] and the current
study might be explained by these contrast differences.
The different results may be due to their mousse sam-
ples being a different colour (reddish) and presented in a
different shape (half sphere or pyramidal) than our
cheesecake sample (yellowish and cylindrical). Future re-
search might systematically vary the food (or plate)
colour/shape to investigate the influence of simultaneous
contrast on taste perception. Finally, a third possibility is
that the interactions we observed in our study may have
been observed in the Piqueras-Fiszman et al. study had
they been evaluated [27].
Conclusions
The results of this experiment suggest that the influence
of plate colour and shape on taste perception is, not sur-
prisingly, more complex than expected. There appears to
be a substantial white round plate advantage although,
black square plates have their place also. It seems that
basic judgments (that is, sweetness or intensity) are en-
hanced by white round plates while more complex judg-
ments (that is, quality or liking) are enhanced by both
white round and black square plates. We suggest that this
may be due to specific learned associations or some sort
of familiarity/novelty effect.
Regardless of what is driving this effect, the knowledge
that plate shape and plate colour do interact to influence
taste perceptions is important to the culinary industry.
Chefs certainly want their food to taste a certain way.
Knowing that food presented on a white round plate will
be perceived as sweeter, for example, would allow them
to modify the sweetness levels of their product such that
the desired level of perceived sweetness is achieved.
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Methods
Participants
A total of 48 individuals (27 males and 21 females), ran-
ging in age from 16 to 54 years old (M= 22.23, SD =
6.68), volunteered to participate in the study. Genders
did not differ in age, t(46) = −1.70, P>.05. All partici-
pants voluntarily stopped by two tables set up in the
university cafeteria and initially completed a standard in-
formed consent process which additionally involved
reporting any food- or ingredient-related allergies. An
ingredient list was made available to participants but, for
safety reasons, any participant who reported a food-
related allergy was thanked for their interest but not per-
mitted to take part in the study. This study received eth-
ics approval from the Grenfell Campus, Memorial
University Research Ethics Board.
Materials
President’s Choice (PC™) pre-packaged Original New
York style cheesecake was used as the food stimulus. It
was presented in a cylindrical fashion, with each portion
cut to the same size (6.5 cm in diameter) via a biscuit
cutter. Black and white porcelain plates of circular and
square shapes were used along with tablecloths, napkins,
and plastic spoons. Although the overall surface area
was greater for the square plates, keeping the diameter/
width of the round and square plates equal (27 cm) was
thought to be more important (see Figure 2). With that
said, the proportion of surface area covered by food has
been shown to play a role in perception and should po-
tentially be controlled for in future studies [38].
A questionnaire, adapted from Piqueras-Fiszman et al.
[27], was used to gather information on participants’
perceptions of the cheesecake sampled. Responses to
questions regarding sweetness, intensity, quality, and lik-
ing were made on unstructured 10 cm scales, each an-
chored with ‘Not at all sweet’,‘Not at all intense’,‘Very
low quality’, and ‘Extremely dislike’on the left ends,
and ‘Very sweet’,‘Very intense’,‘Very high quality’, and
‘Extremely like’on the right ends. Participants were re-
quired to place an ‘X’on each scale wherever they
thought best represented their experience of the food
sampled. Two further questions assessed participants’
hunger at the time of the study and their general regard
for cheesecake. Responses to these were also made on
unstructured scales but were anchored with ‘Extremely
hungry’and ‘Extremely dislike’on the left, and ‘Ex-
tremely full’and ‘Extremely like’on the right. Participant
age and gender were also recorded.
Procedure
One round table was used to present the questionnaires
and copies of the informed consent form while the sec-
ond table, which was covered in a transparent plastic
Figure 2 The four plate types.
Stewart and Goss Flavour 2013, 2:27 Page 7 of 9
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tablecloth, presented the samples to be tasted. Data were
collected in blocks with each block consisting of four
plates corresponding to one of the four conditions. Each
block was repeated three times, in a pseudo-random
order, for a total of 12 trials per plate condition. The
four plates were spaced equally apart on the half of the
table opposite of the researcher and the circular portion
of cheesecake was situated in the centre of each plate
(see Figure 3).
Volunteer participants were asked whether they pos-
sessed any food-related allergies and if they did not, they
were invited to begin the experiment by completing an
informed consent process. The true nature of the study
was withheld from participants until the debriefing ses-
sion and instead participants were told they would take
part in a taste test. At no point during their participation
were subjects aware that this was a taste perception
study comparing plate colour and shape. Participants
were then seated at the table in front of one of the four
plates and were instructed to not touch the plate and
to refrain from conversing with other participants. As
the cheesecake had a layer of graham crumbs as its low-
est layer, with the rest of the cake composition being
uniform, the participants were instructed to taste one
spoonful from the top of the sample using the spoon
provided. Participants then immediately completed the
questionnaire and were then permitted to finish their
cheesecake. Once the questionnaire was completed, par-
ticipants were given a second copy of the informed
consent form to keep for their own records, and a
debriefing form explaining the true purpose of the study
was provided. Any questions they had were answered
and they were told how/when they could obtain the
group results of the experiment. To avoid biasing any
other potential participants, all participants were asked
to not discuss, for a period of three days, the true nature
of the study with incoming participants or anyone else
who may participate.
Endnote
a
A 2 × 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA), with plate
shape and plate colour as factors and age as the
dependent variable, revealed no significant interaction or
main effects. Further, age was not significantly correlated
with any dependent variable. Both analyses suggested
that the groups were well matched for age, and that age,
at least within the age range measured here, seemed to
not be predictive of judgments of sweetness, intensity,
quality, or liking. We also examined if the groups dif-
fered in composition with regard to gender. Two chi-
square tests, one for each plate colour, examined any
relationship between plate shape and gender. There was
no significant relationship observed for white plates
suggesting similar gender compositions across plate shape
conditions. However, for black plates a significant relation-
ship was found between plate shape and gender, χ2=4.20,
P<.05, with significantly more females in the black square
condition compared to the black circle condition. To fur-
ther assess if gender was influencing the attribute ratings
we again conducted ANCOVAs, using gender as a covari-
ate, for each of the four attributes. Gender was not a
significant covariate for any of the analyses (P>.05),
suggesting that the gender difference in group composi-
tions did not confound the obtained results.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest, financially or
otherwise.
Authors’contributions
PS conceived of the study, participated equally with EG in the study design
and data analysis, and drafted/revised the manuscript. EG completed the
data collection and aided in the initial stages of manuscript preparation. All
authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors appreciate the support of Grenfell Campus, Memorial University
of Newfoundland for the funding used to purchase study materials and for
allotting space in the university cafeteria. The authors also wish to thank all
participants who volunteered to complete the study and the anonymous
reviewers who aided in manuscript preparation.
Received: 14 June 2013 Accepted: 4 October 2013
Published: 25 October 2013
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doi:10.1186/2044-7248-2-27
Cite this article as: Stewart and Goss: Plate shape and colour interact to
influence taste and quality judgments. Flavour 2013 2:27.
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