THE INFLUENCE OF FLAVOR AND COLOR ON DRINK IDENTIFICATION BY CHILDRENAND ADULTS

This study investigated how color and flavor influences drink identifi cation by children and adults. The children ranged in age from 2 to 18 years of age. Each subject tasted four drinks that differed in color and flavor. Each drink had an atypical color-flavor pairing (e.g., bro wn-pineapple) or a typical pairing (e.g., brown-chocolate), After tast ing each drink, the subject chose which of four flavor names identifie d the drink. For the atypical drinks, the selection of color-associate d names (e.g., chocolate for a brown drink) decreased, and the selecti on of flavor-associated names increased with age from the preschoolers to the adults. For the typical drinks, the selection of the correct n ame was greater than 80% for all ages. These results suggest that drin k identification becomes more influenced by flavor as children get old er because of an increase in the ability of children to focus on flavo r as their perceptual-attentional skills mature. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.