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The traditional view of measurement repeatability is discussed in the light of psychological theories about stability and change in preference and choice behavior. The argumentation is illustrated by data obtained in groups of children and adults who are exposed to the same hedonic sensory measurements a number of times. It is demonstrated that first hedonic impressions are poor predictors of final liking and choice. The repeatability of hedonic methods should be judged on the basis of the stability of the change in preference of different, but comparable populations, rather than on the reliability of repeated measurement in the same population.

The influence of two internal variables (gender and nutritional state as measured by subjective hunger) and one external variable (either visual pre-exposure to a food stimulus or variation of the visual quality of the stimulus) on appetite for pizza in general or for a specific pizza, was studied in an experiment with 129 male and 225 female adult subjects, which were distributed in almost equal ratios over four sessions per day. They rated their hunger, their appetite for pizza (before and after visual presentation of the product) and their desire to eat a slice of any of four pizza varieties varying on visual characteristics. It was shown that appetite for the item pizza increased with hunger and with pre-exposure to the food, but that these two factors did not interact. Appetite for a specific pizza was influenced by its visual quality and by hunger, both factors acting independently. Compared to hunger, gender, the second internal factor, exerted a lesser influence. Furthermore, the reported appetite for a certain food item proved to be a good predictor of actual eating behaviour.CI - Copyright 2001 Academic Press.