EFFECT OF QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN AND THE NUMBER OF SAMPLES TASTED ON HEDONIC RATINGS¹

Abstract

ABSTRACT A total of 450 consumers participated in a test to determine whether questionnaire length, presence of key diagnostic questions or serving position affected their hedonic discrimination among yellow cakes. Consumers evaluated four yellow cakes representing a 2 × 2 factorial design of texture and flavor flaws. They used one of the following six questionnaires: only a 9‐point hedonic scale, a 9‐point hedonic scale with open end questions, and four others comprising a 2 × 2 factorial design with two levels of questionnaire length and two levels of questionnaire completeness. Neither the presence of key attribute questions nor the length of the questionnaire affected the value or the sensitivity of the judges’ overall liking scores. Samples tasted first received higher hedonic scores than those same samples tasted second throughfifth. Judges could discriminate among the samples on the basis of overall liking best when samples were tasted fourth or fifth.