Abstract

ANGULO, Ofelia  and  O'MAHONY, Michael. Thurstone model application to difference sensory tests. ALAN [online]. 2009, vol.59, n.4, pp.349-357. ISSN 2309-5806.

Part of understanding why judges perform better on some difference tests than others requires an understanding of how information coming from the mouth to the brain is processed. For some tests it is processed more efficiently than others. This is described by what has been called Thurstonian modeling. This brief review introduces the concepts and ideas involved in Thurstonian modeling as applied to sensory difference measurement. It summarizes the literature concerned with the theorizing and confirmation of Thurstonian models. It introduces the important concept of stimulus variability and the fundamental measure of sensory difference: d’. It indicates how the paradox of discriminatory non-discriminators, which had puzzled researchers for years, can be simply explained using the model. It considers how memory effects and the complex interactions in the mouth can reduce d’ by increasing the variance of sensory distributions.

Keywords : Sensory evaluation; difference tests; Thurstonian models; signal detection theory; cognitive strategies.