Physiology & behavior
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I have examined whether adults can recognize their boyfriends/husbands or girlfriends/wives by stroking either their partner's hand or face. On both trials, subjects were asked to chose their mate from amongst two unfamiliar age- and gender-matched adult foils. During testing, the subject's eyes and nose were covered and auditory cues were masked by ambient noise. ⋯ However, while both women and men were successful at the face-touch-recognition task, only the women were successful at the hand-recognition task. I conclude that tactile cues afforded by stroking skin are sufficiently salient to allow for individual recognition. As for the gender-related difference, women may have an advantage at hand recognition because men's hands are more discriminable than women's hands.
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Although starch is the world's most abundant nutritive carbohydrate, its sensory properties are not as well understood as those of sugars. Previous researchers have assumed that all starches have the same flavor. The present experiments examined flavor differences among starches. ⋯ Similar results were obtained with corn amylopectin and potato starch, even though these starches differ greatly with regard to the effects of cooking on preference in untrained rats. However, rats trained to avoid potato starch avoided this starch to a greater degree than did rats trained to avoid corn amylopectin; conversely, rats trained to avoid corn amylopectin avoided this starch to a greater degree than did rats trained to avoid potato starch. Therefore, the flavor of starch is complex; there are specific flavor notes related to species and cooking.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)