Immediate recognition memory for wine

Abstract

We describe a preliminary investigation concerning the short-term recognition memory function for gustatory stimuli (wines). In Experiment 1A, 24 non-expert wine drinkers completed a yes/no recognition task for 3-wine sequences. For the raw recognition scores, the serial position function comprised both primacy and recency. Recency did not, however, achieve significance for the d′ scores. In Experiment 1B, 24 participants completed the same yes/no recognition task for 3-visual matrix sequences. In contrast to Experiment 1A, the serial position function comprised recency and an absence of primacy. We argue that the presence of primacy for the wine sequences cannot be interpreted via a verbal labelling strategy, nor can it be interpreted via proactive interference from the first wine in the list on subsequent list items. The result suggests qualitative differences in the memory processing for gustatory and non-verbal visual stimuli.

Keywords:

• Gustatory
• Serial position
• Working memory

The authors wish to thank Dr John Williams for his advice regarding the selection of wines, and both Prof. Geoff Ward and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on the manuscript.

The authors wish to thank Dr John Williams for his advice regarding the selection of wines, and both Prof. Geoff Ward and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on the manuscript.