Liquid Texture Perceived in the Mouth1

Statistical analysis of subjective assessments obtained by ratio scaling suggested that a ten attribute vocabulary describing liquid texture in the mouth could be reduced to a smaller number without great loss of predictive power, Three attributes, “thickness,”“smoothness,” and “slipperiness,” which could best predict the remaining seven were selected for further study. Each attribute was found to be closely related to a specific force in the mouth. “Thickness” was shown to be proportional to the viscous force between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. “Smoothness” seemed to be inversely proportional to the frictional force caused by the contact between the tongue and the mouth. “Slipperiness” was shown to be inversely proportional to a known average of viscous and frictional forces.