TABLE 6.
Comparison of results from Chan et al. (2013) and the present study.
| Free association task |
Association rating task |
||||||
| Chan et al. (2013) (Study 1B) | The present study (Study 1) | Chan et al. (2013) (Study 1A) | The present study (Study 4) | ||||
| Words | Tastes | Frequency/total | Percentage | Frequency/total | Percentage | Rating | Rating |
| Love | Sweet | 82/102 | 80.39 | 86/102 | 84.31 | 5.41 | 4.63 |
| Bitter | 3/102 | 2.94 | 3.38 | 2.57 | |||
| Sour | 5/102 | 4.90 | 2.76 | 2.73 | |||
| Jealousy | Sour | 62/102 | 60.78 | 50/102 | 49.02 | 5.32 | 3.7 |
| Bitter | 29/102 | 28.43 | 28/102 | 27.45 | 4.97 | 3.13 | |
| Sweet | 1/102 | 0.98 | 1.54 | 0.93 | |||
| Passion | Sweet | 65/143 | 45.45 | 49/102 | 48.04 | 3.27 | |
| Spicy | 53/143 | 37.06 | 39/102 | 38.24 | 3.9 | ||
| Sour | 11/143 | 7.69 | 2/102 | 1.96 | 1.77 | ||
| Salty | 11/143 | 7.69 | 3/102 | 2.94 | 1.77 | ||
| Bitter | 3/143 | 2.10 | 1/102 | 0.98 | 1.13 | ||
| Sad | Bitter | 74/150 | 49.33 | 77/102 | 75.49 | 3.9 | |
| Sour | 48/150 | 32.00 | 14/102 | 13.73 | 3.1 | ||
| Salty | 23/150 | 15.33 | 6/102 | 5.88 | 2.23 | ||
| Sweet | 4/150 | 2.67 | 1/102 | 0.98 | 0.5 | ||
| Spicy | 1/150 | 0.67 | 2/102 | 1.96 | 1.5 | ||
| Betray | Bitter | 86/159 | 54.09 | 62/102 | 60.78 | 4.07 | |
| Sour | 55/159 | 34.59 | 18/102 | 17.65 | 3.07 | ||
| Spicy | 16/159 | 10.06 | 16/102 | 15.69 | 2.43 | ||
| Salty | 2/159 | 1.26 | 1/102 | 0.98 | 1.77 | ||
| Sweet | 0/159 | 0.00 | 0/102 | 0.00 | 0.37 | ||
There was a bit difference on the procedure of the experimental task between Chan et al. (2013) and the present study: For free association task: In Chan et al. (2013), they had participants generate at least two tastes for each emotion word. In the present study, we had participants think of one taste first come into mind for each word. For association rating task: In Chan et al. (2013), participants rate the associative strength on a 7-point scale, with 1 indicated not at all associated, 7 indicated highly associated. While in the present study, participants rate the associative strength on a 6-point scale, with 0 indicated not at all associated, 1 indicate very weak association, and 5 indicated very strong association. There was also difference on data coding of the presented results for free association task: In Chan et al. (2013), for the words “love” and “jealousy” in study 1B, frequency and percentage were coded based on the first taste response provided by 102 participants, the same as in our study. However, for the words “passion, sad, betray,” frequency and percentage were coded based on the valid responses as both first and second responses for each word provided by 102 participants. In the present study, frequency and percentage were all coded based on the first response (valid) to each word by 102 participants.