USE OF THE RECEIVER OPERATING CHARACTERISTIC IN THE STUDY OF TASTE PERCEPTION

Studies of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) for taste are reviewed and new data on its shape are presented. What evidence there is suggests that ROCs for taste conform to the normal-normal equal variance model of signal detection theory. Few ROCs for taste have been reported, probably because the large number of trials required by detection theory makes the task arduous for subjects in taste experiments. However, pooling ratings from several subjects and estimating the parameters of the pooled ROC by jackknife techniques circumvents that problem to some extent. Because experiments on taste are often based on a small number of trials, it is especially useful to determine the standard errors of ROC parameters. Methods for estimating these standard errors, including that of the area measure, p(A), are therefore presented.