Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on August 24, 2005
Chemical Senses 2005 30(7):565-574; doi:10.1093/chemse/bji050
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The Association between Flavor Labeling and Flavor Recall Ability in Children
1 Center for Human Growth and Development, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA and 2 Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Correspondence to be sent to: Julie C. Lumeng, Center for Human Growth and Development, 300 North Ingalls Building, 10th Floor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0406, USA. e-mail: jlumeng{at}umich.edu
This study sought to determine if the ability to label a flavor is associated with an improved ability to recall having tasted the flavor in preschool-aged children. A total of 120 3- to 6-year-old English-speaking children tasted and labeled 20 different flavors, blinded to color. Children's labels for the flavors were scored for consistency and accuracy. Recall for having tasted the flavor was tested. Both labeling ability and recall ability improved rapidly between the ages of 3 and 6 years in this cohort. Regression analysis indicated that independent of the child's age, consistent accurate labeling was positively associated with recall ability. Higher maternal education was an independent and marginal contributor to greater recall ability. The combination of consistent and accurate labeling, age, and maternal education accounted for 28% of the variance in flavor recall ability. Consistent but inaccurate labeling alone contributed little to the variance in flavor recall ability. We conclude from these findings that children's ability to recall having tasted a flavor develops rapidly during the preschool age range and that improved recall ability is associated with the ability to consistently and accurately label the flavor. We conclude that language mediates memory for flavors in young children.
Key words: child development, food preferences, language development, memory
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