The Change of the Optimal Complexity Level after extended Exposure - Comparison of senior citizens, young adults, and children

T. Sander*(1), C.Ringel (2), E.P. Köster (3)

(1) ISI GmbH, Göttingen, Germany,

(2) University of Göttingen, Department of Psychology, Germany,

(3) University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

 thorsten.sanderisi-goettingen.de

The fact that food preferences often change after extended exposure has been observed in numerous experiments of sensory research during the past years. Variables like the perceived intensity, novelty, and complexity of food affect liking according to the different individual optimum stimulation levels of the consumers.

The segment of senior citizens has been constantly growing in the past decades, so that their role in market research has become more important. However, not much research has yet been carried out in order to observe long-term preferences among elderly people. In this study, the change of liking was compared among different age groups including elderly people.

78 seniors (aged 65-93, 30 subjects were 75 years or older) participated in a three phase experiment with four fruit wafers of three different complexity levels (complex, two products of medium complexity, and simple). For comparison, 69 younger adults (18-35 years) and 69 children (8-12 years) completed the survey.

In phase 1, all four samples were evaluated sequentially monadic. Then, each respondent received a large amount of either the simple or the complex wafers for a 6 day in-home use period. After one week, the subjects participated in phase 3 consisting of the same products like in phase 1 with varied presentation order.

Results show significant differences among the age groups: Elderly participants showed an increase of liking for simple products after exposure to a simple home use product, whereas exposure to complex wafers led to a decrease of liking for the complex stimuli. For children, a different result was observed: After both home use products they increased their liking for the complex sample and showed a significant decrease of liking for the simple stimuli.

Key words: Complexity, Senior Citizens, Exposure, Fruit Wafers