Jacob's Human Behavioral Science Project - Does Smell Affect Taste?

This smell versus taste behavioral science project determines if your sense of smell affects your taste sense.

Hypothesis:
I do not think that the smell of an object will make my family members think that the sucker tastes different.

Materials:
Item for smelling.: an orange
Dum-Dum candy suckers.
A number of human participants, better known as my family members
Blindfold

Procedure:
1. Gather materials needed for your smell versus taste behavioral science project experiment. Make sure you try your experiment on one person at a time and that none of the other participants know what is going to happen.

2. Choose an item for smelling and a flavor of sucker for tasting. Record the items you have chosen. If making your own suckers, follow the instructions carefully in your kit. Be sure to record all of the items you used. Adult supervision of kids is strongly recommended.

3. Ask your participant to close his or her eyes. Cover your participant's eyes with a blindfold. Remind your participant - no peeking!

4. Place the item you chose for smelling under the subject's nose and ask him or her to inhale the fragrance. Do not reveal what item is being used for smelling. Do not allow the participant to touch the item.

5. Now ask your participant to stick out his or her tongue.

6. Place the previously specified flavor of sucker (apple, grape, cherry etc.) on the participant's tongue long enough for them to taste it.

7. Ask your participant to identify the flavor of sucker.

8. Record the participant's answer.

. Follow the same process with the other participants. Be sure you have enough suckers to use a fresh one for each participant.

Results:
Emily thought her sucker was grape when it was cherry
Will thought his sucker was orange when it was blueberry
Sophia thought her sucker was grape when it was cherry
Cade thought his sucker was watermelon when it was green apple
Grant thought his sucker was rootbeer and it was (he was the only one who was right!)
Hannah thought her sucker was rootbeer when it was chocolate
Brett thought his sucker was popcorn when it was cotton candy
Mom thought her sucker was cherry when it was green apple
Luke just liked his sucker. I don't know what flavor he thought it was, he just screamed when I tried to take it from him.

Conclusion:From my experiment I determined that in my family smell influences taste. Everyone but Grant thought that their sucker was another flavor than it really was.