EFFECT OF QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN AND THE NUMBER OF SAMPLES TASTED ON HEDONIC RATINGS' zy ZATA M. VICKERS', CAROL M. CHRISTENSEN', STEVEN K. FAHRENHOLTZ4, AND IRENE M. GENGLER' zyx 'Department of Food Science and Nutrition University of Minnesota 1334 Eckles Avenue St. Paul. MN 55112 'Colgate Palmolive Co. Piscataway, NJ 4Grand Metropolitan PLC Minneapolis, MN 'Sensory Testing Service Falcon Heights, MN ABSTRACT zyxw A total of zyxwvu 450 consumers participated in a test to determine whether question- naire length, presence zyxwvu of key diagnostic questions or serving position affected their hedonic discrimination among yellow cakes. Consumers evaluated four yellow cakes representing a 2 x 2 factorial design zyx of texture andflavorflaws. They used one of the following six questionnaires: only a 9-point hedonic scale, a 9-point hedonic scale with open end questions, and four others comprising a 2 x 2 factorial design with two levels of questionnaire length and two levels of questionnaire completeness. Neither the presence of key attribute questions nor the length of the questionnaire affected the value or the sensitivity of the judges' overall liking scores. Samples tasted first received higher hedonic scores than those same samples tasted second throughfifth. Judges could discriminate among the samples on the basis of overall liking best when samples were tasted fourth or fifth. 'Published as paper no. 20,073 of the contribution series of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station based on research conducted under Project 18-52. This study was supported by The Pillsbury Company. Journal of Sensory Studies 8 (1993) 189-200. All Rights Reserved. Topyright 1993 by Food zyxwvuts & Nutrition Press, he., Trumbull, Connecticut. 189