Dominique Cain

Research 2
Researching Valid Articles
Collins, Ishti. "Did You Know That "Spicy" Is Not a Taste?" HubPages. Web. 10
Sept. 2014. <http://ishti.hubpages.com/hub/Did-you-know-that-spicy-is-nota-taste>.
In this article the author analyzes how the taste we 'feel' from spicy foods, is
perceived in our brains. According to the author taste is based on a stimuli
that is felt in the limbic system where the parietal lobe rather than in the
somesthetic system where taste is perceived. This type of background
information is vital to my research because it proves my theory on how the
human "tastes" food with the brain through the limbic system by "feeling"
rather than actually consuming the food to taste it. Though Collins did not do
any research of his own, he had valid points that were backed up by using
other's research.
Dam, G. V., Peeck, J., Brinkeink, M., & Gorter, U. (n.d.). The Isolation Effect in Free Recall
andRecognition.RetrievedFebruary23,2015,from

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The psychological principle known as the Isolation Effect states that an item that
"stands out like a sore thumb" is more likely to be remembered. The authors
offer an interpretation of the isolation effect based on the analysis of the
processing of similarities and differences among the items. Two experiments
provide evidence for this interpretation. The results are discussed in the
context of current theories of distinctiveness effects in memory. An appeal is

made for a different conceptualization of distinctiveness effects, one that

treats distinctiveness as a discriminative process in memory that requires
processing of both similarities and differences among items. This research
would be valid to my research because it validates the ideas that
participants/subjects are able to recognize an item far better when it blatantly
sticks out from its surroundings.Thus food products that have specific hues to
them or specific logos will most likely be chosen when compared to its
counterpart.
Edwards, Scott P. "BrainWork." Delicious! Disgusting! So Say Our Brains. The Dana
Foundation, Feb. 2008. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.dana.org/Publications/Brainwork/Details.aspx?id=43717>.
In this article the author, Scott Edwards, discusses how our senses all work together
to provide an overall taste of something. Edwards states that when the human
puts something in their mouth and begins to chew, all of these senses act at
once to give you a oneshot taste of something. He quotes a Duke
University neurobiologist, Sidney A. Simon, for background research.
According to Dr.Simon the "oneshot taste" can be described when one drinks
lemonade she states a person drinks "[...] lemonade, not citric acid, sugar, pH
this, pH that[...]". Edwards also goes into detail describing the second thing
that happens in the process of the "oneshot taste" test. When eating one
decides either they like what he's put into his mouth or either he doesn't - in
which case you swallow it, or you decide to spit it out. We react much
differently to a fresh potato chip than to a soggy one, for instance. I chose this
article because of the background research Edwards summarized in his article
- this helped me holistically understand more complex research from

institutions that he used as examples, mainly Duke and the University of

California. In his last section of the article, Edwards uses research from Duke
that Dr.Simon (who was mentioned early) participated in. In her research
Dr.Simon states that body systems must work together to not only perceive
taste, but comprehend the actual textures and "taste" of the food that is being
consumed. If, for example, you gagged on lima beans when you were young
and vomited after eating them, you are not likely to like them when you are
older. After doing background research, I found out that this is called
conditioned taste aversion, which is a survival mechanism that trains the body
to avoid certain substances before they cause harm. For another pratical
instance, eating poison would be an example - your brain is trained to know
that you aren't suppose to naturally eat poison, however your voluntary
skeletal system chooses if you consume it at will or not at will. According to
Dr.Simon "[...] this shows that theres not just a wire from the tongue to the
brain [telling us what a taste is] [...] [but there is a] modulated all over the
place based on expectations and experiences. If it was simply what goes on
on the tongue, then expectations [of taste] wouldn't matter [...]". Although, all
of the background research Edwards used was valid for my research project he was answering a different question "[...] [has] reduced activity in the
gustatory cortex [...] [lead to] [...] anorexia nervosa" - whereas my question is
about how the brain affects what we choose to or what we choose not to
consume.
" How Marketers Manipulate Us to Buy, Buy, Buy - World of Psychology." Psych
Central.com. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.

<http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/11/07/how-marketersmanipulate-us-to-buy-buy-buy/>.
In this article the author, Martin Lindstrom, discusses how markers manipulate their
audiences to buy their products. Lindstrom discusses just about every product
producing industry - food, toy, car, housing, boats, and more. I choose this
article because it in my research I need to know how to capitalize on the
thoughts and past experiences of others to understand why they've chosen a
specific part of the food that they like or dislike. Lindstrom did not have any
background research, so this was not beneficial. However, because he works
as a marketer, his article proved quite useful.
Maher, Teshia. "The Food and Flexibility Connection." 02 June 2014. Web. 8 Sept.
2014. <http://teshiamaher.com/the-food-and-flexibility-connection/>.
In this brief blog Tiesha Maher, a nutritionist and private yoga instruction, discusses
how one's diet can inhibit them from become healthy. In short, Maher says
that if one often and consciously chooses to eat "crap" food their body and
mind can never grow. I chose this article because of Maher's description of
the foods we tend to eat can often alter our opinions on other food. Maher
suggests that if one were to in indulge in a specific way a food product is
cooked unhealthily, they most likely won't be open to that same food cooked
a different way. Sugary drinks, and salty foods are examples of this. If one
were to constantly drink regular Mountain Dew they most likely would not be
open to drinking Diet Mountain Dew, because they have been 'altered' to
prefer the loaded sugary taste of regular Mountain Dew. Though Maher
background was very valid and relates to my topic, she did not participate in

any type of research. Therefore, I can only use her blog article as reference
rather than background research.
Schrank, Jeff. "Taste: Your Brain on Food." Taste: Your Brain on Food. 30 Oct. 2011.
Web. 08 Sept. 2014. <http://www.slideshare.net/JeffSchrank/taste-your-brainon-food>.
In this analysis the Jeff Schrank investigates how the food people indulge it all but
based on taste perceptions. By analyzing previous taste perception
experiments Schrank concludes that everything we eat, we taste with our eyes
rather than our mouth. I chose to use this as one of my sources due to Schrank
strong analysis on how the human's opinion of taste is altered by the brain
and past experiences, rather than taste buds. The author start's from the
beginning of a person's - childhood - to example that from the day we are
born we often already want foods and drinks that have a "comforting taste"
(hence this is were the phase 'comfort food" comes from). Schrank this goes
on to use food commercial ads as examples of how people alter their mind to
perceive that restaurants food as "actually looking like the food on the
commercial" and not the reality of what is actually presented to us when we
eat. Schrank even states that "color alters how we perceive food to taste"; for
this he uses margarine as an example. Margarine's natural color is a "pale",
"pasty" white; coloring is added to make it fit the expectations of its
customers. Schrank also uses poultry, milk, and juice. Another interesting
example the author uses is ice-cream, specifically 'Ben & Jerry's' ice-cream.
He quotes Dr. Francis McGlone's, a neurosceintist, work. In his work, Dr.
McGlone says that consuming ice-cream, especially 'Ben & Jerry's' ice-cream
is equalivent to the brain on drugs. Dr. McGlone states the "ice-cream

activates a part of the brain known as the orbitofront cortex", this is were
emotions are activated, and is just behind the eyes; "by melting, ice-cream
changes its physics" this creates a contrasts "[...] that continually keeps your
senses interested". That statement not only proves that the sight of food not
only activates specific parts of the brain to feel a certain way, but that even
the thought of ice-cream induces a feeling! In short from reading Schrank's
analysis I conclude that tasting is as much about the brain as it is about taste
buds and the tongue. Therefore his research and background analysis is very
valid to my topic.