Perceptual and mental mixtures in odor and in taste: are there similarities and differences between experiments or between modalities? Reply to Schifferstein (1997)

D. Algom and W. S. Cain (1991b) found relative invariance in the pattern of judgments of perceptual and mental mixtures of banana and grass odors. Invariance held both for judgments of total intensity and for those of an individual constituent. For 2 tastes, H. N. J. Schifferstein (1997) found a pattern with both similarities to and differences from D. Algom and W. S. Cain's. A key difference lay in finding more symmetry of masking in mental mixtures than in perceptual mixtures. H. N. J. Schifferstein concluded from this alone that any similarity between the perceptual and mental arose from knowledge of "mixture suppression." The authors of this article do not refute the possibility; however, they reject the premise that a statistically reliable difference between the perceptual and the imaginal rules out imagery. The authors review relevant considerations and find no a priori reason to assume that what held for attributes in taste will hold for odors. An approach to resolve the issue is also suggested.