THE RELATIONSHIPS OF PITCH, LOUDNESS AND EATING TECHNIQUE TO JUDGMENTS OF THE CRISPNESS AND CRUNCHINESS OF FOOD SOUNDS2

Abstract

Twenty subjects judged a variety of tape recorded bite sounds and chew sounds for both crispness and crunchiness. Crispness scores were generally higher for the bite sounds than for the chew sounds. Crunchiness judgments showed no overall difference between bites and chews. However, the interaction between the eating technique and the individual food sounds was highly significant for both crispness and crunchiness judgments, and in several cases the result for a specific food differed from the general conclusions. From the results of the first test, two subsets of the sounds were selected based on significant t‐tests: one set in which the sounds were either more crisp than crunchy or more crunchy than crisp, and a second set in which the bite and chew sounds for the same product differed in crispness. These subsets were tested twice by a second group of twenty subjects to determine whether the differences might be related to loudness or pitch. The crisper sounds were typically both higher in pitch and louder than the crunchier sounds although exceptions occurred. In the majority of bite versus chew pairs, the crisper sounds were also louder‐ and/or higher‐pitched than the less crisp sounds.