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Perception and Representation: Sorting Task and Projective Mapping

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Consumer Research Methods in Food Science

Part of the book series: Methods and Protocols in Food Science ((MPFS))

Abstract

People form mental concepts of categories of objects, which permit them to respond appropriately to new objects they encounter by making inferences from properties of known categories. Among those concepts, food concepts are central to human food perception and acceptation, but how these concepts are represented in memory is unclear and remains a vast field of research to explore. Traditionally, it was though that categories and hence concepts were well defined with clear definitions that specifies what is in and out of the category. However, it has not been possible to find definitions for many familiar categories especially in the food domain where food can be classified in many different ways: food to eat at breakfast, processed food, sweet food, food for kids, protein-containing food, plant food. Thus, it is necessary to use empirical approaches to understand food mental representations. In this chapter, we will focus on how to access consumers’ mental representations. We first discuss the notions of categorization, categories, and concepts that are closely related to mental representations. Then, two methods used in sensory evaluation and consumer science to access mental representations are presented: sorting task and projective mapping. These methods are illustrated with applications taken from the literature.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Junia, UMRT 1158 BioEcoAgro, Lille, France

    Sylvie Chollet

  2. Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation, AgroSup, CNRS, INRAE, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

    Dominique Valentin

Authors
  1. Sylvie Chollet
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  2. Dominique Valentin
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Correspondence to Sylvie Chollet .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Firmenich & Cie SAS, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

    Carlos Gómez-Corona

  2. Plumpton College, Brighton, UK

    Heber Rodrigues

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© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Chollet, S., Valentin, D. (2023). Perception and Representation: Sorting Task and Projective Mapping. In: Gómez-Corona, C., Rodrigues, H. (eds) Consumer Research Methods in Food Science. Methods and Protocols in Food Science . Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3000-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3000-6_7

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-2999-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-3000-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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