PFSG Conference - A Sense of Change
25 June 2012 Campden BRI, Chipping Campden
Organised by IFST's Professional Food Sensory group (PFSG)
As the world of Consumer Sensory Science continues to expand, the approaches we use in our field are developing fast. During this one day conference, PFSG aim to give you a taster of some recently developed techniques and some issues that may change the way you measure subject response. In the afternoon the two workshops will give you a hands on approach to evaluate some of them
Abstracts
Measuring emotional response in Commercial Products
May Ng, University of Nottingham
Podcast: MP3 Download Presentation: PDF
With the rapid proliferation of new products into the marketplace, understanding emotional responses may offer a differential advantage beyond traditional hedonic measures. Recently the EsSense Profile™ (King et al., 2010), a method which incorporates measures of both overall acceptability and emotional response has been introduced to the consumer science arena. However, little data is available to understand the application of this method in a commercial context. The objectives of this study were: to determine if emotional data provides discrimination beyond that obtained from hedonic response; to compare the effectiveness of a published predefined lexicon with that generated by the consumer; and, to evaluate the effectiveness of CATA approach compared to intensity scaling as used in EsSense Profile. To this end, the hedonic and emotional response to commercial blackcurrant squash was investigated comparing two different approaches: EsSense Profile™ (n=100), in which subjects rated a predefined emotion lexicon, and check-all-that-apply (CATA) of a consumer defined (CD) lexicon (n=100). This presentation compares the results of the emotion profiles of the eleven beverages obtained from each method and discusses where the methods provide similar and/ or different information concerning the products and presentation conditions, as well as evaluating the two different approaches themselves.
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Sensory claim substantiation in the UK: introduction and retailer’s perspective for non-foods
Lauren Rogers, Sensory Science Consultant
Melissa Spears, Tescos Stores
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A sensory claim is a statement about a product that highlights its sensory attribute advantages in order to enhance its marketability. Lauren Rogers, Sensory Science Consultant, and Melissa Spears, Non-Food Quality Manager for Tesco Stores UK, together will provide an introduction to sensory claim substantiation in the UK. The presentation will detail examples of the various claim categories alongside methods of substantiating claims. Their presentation will also include a retailer’s perspective on substantiating non-food claims, using examples from the Baby, Beauty & Toiletries and Clothing Categories.
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Workshop: Experimental Auctions: a tool to investigate willingness-to-pay
Dr. Carolina Chaya, Technical University of Madrid
Dr Joanne Hort, University of Nottingham
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The purpose of the workshop is to simulate an experimental auction conducted to investigate willingness-to-pay of two imported cheese products: one of them familiar and the other one unfamiliar in the British market. After a short introduction to experimental auctions, attendees to the workshop will be considered as consumers and will participate in sensory consumer tests involving a willingness to pay auction under different conditions.
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Workshop: Getting closer to the real world of the consumer: how new technologies and developments can help
Peter Burgess, Campden BRI
Duncan Smith, Mindlab International Ltd
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Sensory and consumer research is a diverse activity which draws on the expertise of several disciplines with a common goal to better understand the interrelationships between products and consumers.
Over the past decade there have been significant developments in insights gained from the field of psychology in which the central theme is the relationship between conscious and unconscious elements in consumer behaviour and decision making.
These developments question the premise that the choices consumers make are the result of deliberative, linear and controlled processes, and instead asserts that consumers are strongly influenced by context; decisions are guided by conditions of the moment – by social and environmental influences as well as by cognitive short-cuts, emotions and habits.
Furthermore, consumers do not make much effort when they make a choice - they use rules of thumb or heuristics. However in many cases consumers are unaware of the heuristic or contextual factors that have influenced their decision. The 'why' information is unavailable to conscious recall - people are likely to be unaware of the impetus that drove the decision.
Against this background, sensory scientists have recognised the limitations associated with traditional, consciousness-orientated and explicit methods often used in consumer sensory research. Alternative/additional approaches to measuring liking are increasingly being explored.
This workshop will provide a balanced overview of some of the new technologies and approaches being explored to address consumer choice and preference including:
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
- Electroencephalography (EEG)
- Eye-Tracking
- Facial Emotion Encoding
- Implicit Association & behavioural psychology tests
Testing in context and the pros and cons of testing in a lab vs. real life experiences will be discussed along with a (hands on) example of eye tracking.
The benefits and limitations of these approaches in enhancing our understanding of consumer/product interrelationships will be discussed.
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Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS)
Dr Pascal Schlich, INRA France
Podcast: MP3 Download Presentation: PDF
Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) is a “relatively” new technique which allows deriving a temporal sensory profile that is the sequence of dominant sensory perceptions during the tasting of a product.
TDS was invented about 10 years ago by the team of the author. Although it remained quite confidential for the first 5 years, these last 5 years have seen a tremendous increase of its popularity in the food, beverage, cosmetic and car industries. Methodological papers on TDS panel performances and on TDS data analysis have been published recently. Most sensory softwares have included TDS data acquisition and analysis as new functions and a specific web-based software (TimeSens) has also been developed by the team of the author.
The paper will present the origin and the principle of TDS, a review of some of its applications and some recent findings obtained thanks to a database of about 30 TDS studies built and shared with the Lausanne Nestlé Research Center.
Throughout the day, 5 chocolate samples will be available to the conference participants for TDS evaluation thanks to the TimeSens software. These data will be analysed during the presentation thanks to TimeSens. The challenging question of this live exercise is : "Would TDS outcomes make sense with no training ?", opening the door for using it with consumers in natural eating or drinking conditions...