Assessment of instructions on panelist cognitive framework and free sorting task results: A case study of cold brew coffee
2020
Hamilton, Leah M. | Lahne, Jacob
As the free sorting task becomes more common in sensory science, methodological research is needed to determine best practices for the test. Previous studies have shown that asking attribute-specific, “analytical” questions can bias the answers participants give to later “holistic” questions in a survey. For the free sorting task, this has led researchers to recommend only asking subjects to label or describe groups of products after they have finished sorting, but this approach is not based on empirical research. The present study investigated whether the separation of sorting and labeling steps is necessary by having 80 panelists sort 12 cold brew coffee samples in 3 conditions: labeling and describing the groups afterwards, at the same time, or not at all. Results were analyzed with DISTATIS, Hierarchical DISTATIS, and permutation tests. This work is novel in investigating the effect of labeling instructions on sorting results and provides some interesting insight into sensory impact of coffee bean parameters on cold brew coffees. No configurational differences were found based on the timing of labeling instructions and 38% of panelists labeled their groups without being told, suggesting future researchers may request that subjects label when convenient. While the most distinctive samples were the dark roast coffees, a large subgroup (n = 36) sorted the coffee samples partially based on country of origin. Given the lack of effect from different sorting instructions and the tendency for spontaneous, simultaneous labeling, simultaneous labeling is suggested as best practice for future sorting tasks.
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