Should I use touchscreen tablets rather than computers and mice in TDS trials?

Internet technologies are increasingly used as tools in sensory analysis. Thus, it would be a natural step forward for sensory science to move beyond the laboratory, into people's homes. Therefore, working with consumer IT devices like touchscreen tablets in sensory science should be taken into consideration. Working with the intuitive concept of dominance, Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) requires a non-analytical answer from the subject. Using a touchscreen tablet instead of a classic mouse could reduce the cognitive load and favor a more instinctive answer. Indeed, it was proven that touch interaction is natural and efficient, and that finger pointing is faster than using a mouse. In addition, touchscreen could reduce the performance gap between older and younger adults compared to a traditional desktop setup. The aim of this work was to compare TDS results obtained using a mouse and a touchscreen as pointing device for the selection of dominant attributes. Nineteen subjects (regular consumers of dark chocolate, having never participated in a TDS session) tasted in duplicate 3 dark chocolates during two sessions, one for TDS with a mouse and one for TDS with a touchscreen tablet in a counterbalanced order. Results showed the same sequentiality of sensations and the same level of panel performances in both conditions. However, a small advantage for the touchscreen tablets was observed in product discrimination based on dominance duration (MANOVA F equal to 5.29 vs. 4.36). Touchscreen tablets seemed to lead to richer results: the latency before first citation reduced while the number of citations and the overall TDS evaluation duration increased. In the light of these results, the touchscreen tablets are slightly better, and therefore can be considered as an alternative to a traditional desktop setup. Incidentally, these data demonstrates once again the ability of consumers to do TDS consistently with no training. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.