Understanding Mouthfeel Attributes: A Multidimensional Scaling Approach

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to study qualitative relationships among mouthfeel attributes encountered in oral healthcare products. Similarity estimates were obtained from a rapid sorting task and from pairwise similarity ratings. Configurations were interpreted as suggesting four groupings of oral sensations: numbing, astringency, pain and taste. The pain‐associated sensations were further differentiated into thermally related sensations and chemically related sensations in some configurations. Two‐dimensional solutions from the sorting task and from group‐averaged similarity ratings were similar. Individual differences scaling solutions, however, showed unacceptably high stress in two dimensions, suggesting additional nuances in meaning to individual panelists that were not captured by group‐averaged data or by sorting data.