Figure 4.

A signal-detection model to describe how labels could affect flavor identification by modifying the location of the response criterion. Each of the 3 identical pairs of curves shows hypothetical distributions of internal flavor responses along an axis representing “sugar–citrus.” In each pair, the distributions on the left and right represent responses to a stimulus containing proportionally less and more sucrose, respectively. The area under each distribution to the left or right of each criterion corresponds to the probability of responding “citrus” and “sugar,” respectively. Assuming that the criterion is set at a “neutral” location in the absence of any label (upper pair of distributions), then presenting the label CITRUS or SUGAR would shift criterion to the left (middle pair) or to the right (bottom pair), thereby correspondingly increasing the probability of responding “citrus” or “sugar.”