A note on the reliability of subjective judgment in discerning when the mouth is clear of salt taste stimuli

The ability of Ss to judge by taste when they had expectorated exogenous NaCl from the mouth was tested using 10 Ss. It was found that, after a 1-M salt mouthrinse, Ss judged its taste to have vanished while there were still residuals remaining in the mouth, which would have been detected by taste at preexperimental adaptation levels. This means that Ss are unable to judge for them selves when the mouth is clear of exogenous stimuli and that intertrial procedures requiring Ss to do this are suspect.