Evaluation of complementary numerical and visual approaches for investigating pairwise comparisons after principal component analysis

John Castura/ June 1, 2023/ Peer-reviewed Paper/ 0 comments

We propose and evaluate numerical and visual methods for investigating paired comparisons after principal component analysis (PCA). PCA results can be visualized to facilitate an understanding of the relationships between the products and the sensory attributes. But identifying and visualizing significant product differences in multiple PCs simultaneously is not straightforward. A benefit of the proposed methods is that they provide

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Clustering consumers based on their hedonic responses

John Castura/ November 9, 2022/ Oral Presentation/ 0 comments

Consumers are diverse in their product perceptions. But within the consumer population there are often consumer segments whose product perceptions are relatively homogeneous. To discover these consumer segments, consumers’ product-related responses are submitted to a cluster analysis. The particular cluster analysis is chosen by the researcher. But the choice of clustering algorithm can have profound consequences on the clustering solution

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Investigating the temporality of binary taste interactions in blends of sweeteners and citric acid in solution

John Castura/ October 3, 2022/ Peer-reviewed Paper/ 0 comments

This study investigated sweet–sour taste interactions in novel sweeteners using a 3 × 2 factorial design consisting of Sweetening System (three levels: sucrose; d-allulose; and a blend of d-allulose and Monk fruit extract) and Acidity (two levels: with or without citric acid). 110 untrained Chinese subjects participated using the temporal check-all-that-apply (TCATA) method. Mixed-model ANOVA was conducted to investigate the effect of

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Screening as a tool to increase consumer data quality

John Castura/ October 3, 2022/ Poster/ 0 comments

We developed and tested a strategy to improve data quality in consumer tests by dropping consumers based on their screener responses. A key question was whether test outcomes were improved enough to justify the extra effort of having this screening step. To do this investigation, we made an online test in which respondents answered a short screener followed by a

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Clustering consumers based on product discrimination in check-all-that-apply (CATA) data

John Castura/ March 4, 2022/ Peer-reviewed Paper/ 0 comments

Consumers can be clustered based on their product-related check-all-that-apply (CATA) responses. We identify two paradoxes that can occur if these clusters are derived from conventional similarity coefficients. The first paradox is that clustering similar consumers can nullify within-cluster sensory differentiation of products. The second paradox is that consumers who check many attributes yet disagree can be clustered together, whereas consumers

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Consumer hedonic studies with incomplete block designs

John Castura/ August 25, 2021/ Workshop/ 0 comments

Castura, J.C. (2021). Consumer hedonic studies with incomplete block designs. In: Workshop: A journey of consumer segmentation. History and a discussion of current “preference” segmentation approaches based on incomplete and complete test designs (Zach, J., Rothman, L., Carr, B.T., Thomas, H., Castura, J.C.). 14th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, 9-12 August. Online. (Workshop Oral). DOWNLOAD

A retail simulation study for investigating product choice and choice satisfaction: A case study involving kombucha

John Castura/ August 6, 2019/ Poster/ 0 comments

Kombucha is a fermented tea that is rapidly growing in popularity in the United States. As part of a larger consumer study conducted in Portland, Oregon, kombucha consumers (n=1303, 68% female, aged 18-86, USA)participated in an online retail simulation test. They evaluated 9 commercial products (bottle images) and made choice selections in a retail simulation.

Thurstonian-derived models, covariates, and consumer relevance

Sara King/ June 25, 2017/ Oral Presentation/ 0 comments

Sensory discrimination test methods are widely used by industry to guide decision-making. Interpretation increasingly relies on Thurstonian-derived models, which use mathematics to encode psychological decision-making rules, and map method-dependent results onto a putative method-independent discriminable distance (d′). It is also possible to estimate the response bias, or tau (τ), in some test methods, such as the same-different test method. Rousseau

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Evaluation of consumer perception dynamics

Sara King/ September 11, 2016/ Workshop/ 0 comments

Over the last decade, so-called rapid methods for sensory evaluation have been developed to permit consumers to characterize products. The possibility to analyze both sensory perception data and hedonic and other data arising from the same consumers presents new opportunities, but also new challenges to investigate hedonic drivers and other interesting aspects.