Different sensory aspects of a food are not remembered with equal acuity

In the present study, food memory for three sensory aspects involved in food perception, taste, texture and aroma, is compared. Participants received a lunch including a custard dessert (target) under incidental learning condition. One day later, participants were presented with samples identical to the target and with distractors varying either in sweetness, thickness or cherry aroma. Memory was assessed by an absolute recognition question (“Did you eat this sample yesterday?”) and by relative questions (“Is this sample less, equal or more sweet than the sample you ate yesterday?”). Results showed better memory performance for sweetness than for the two other sensory aspects, both in the absolute and in the relative tests. Several hypotheses to explain the differences in memory between different sensory aspects of a food are discussed.