About

Qualifications

• BA Hons (Psychology), University of Sydney, 1977
• PhD, University of New South Wales, 1986 
  

Back to top.

Research

Research Interests

• Chemosensory perception
• Origins of flavour preferences
• Multi-sensory integration in flavour perception
• Human learning, esp. evaluative conditioning
• Behavioural effects of odours
• Pain
  
  
  
  
  

 

Refereed Journal Articles

Selected recent publications:

Prescott, J. & Wilkie, J. (2007) Pain tolerance selectively increased by a sweet-smelling odor. Psychological Science, 18 (4), 308-311.                 

White, T.L. & Prescott, J. (2007) Chemosensory Cross-modal Stroop Effects: The Influence of Olfaction on Taste Identification. Chemical Senses, 32, 337-341.

Yeomans, M.R., Tepper, B.J., Rietzschel, J. & Prescott, J. (2007) Human hedonic responses to sweetness: Role of taste genetics and anatomy. Physiology & Behavior, 91, 264-273.

McAnally, H.M., Poulton, R., Hancox, R.J., Prescott, J. & Welch, D. (2007) Psychosocial predictors of 6-n-Propylthiouracil (PROP) ratings in a birth cohort. Appetite, 49, 700-703.

Le Berre, E., Thomas-Danguin, T., Béno, N., Etiévant, P. & Prescott, J. (2008) Perceptual processing strategy and exposure affect the perception of odor mixtures. Chemical Senses, 33, 193-199.            

Prescott, J., Kim, H. & Kim, K-O. (2008) Cognitive mediation of hedonic changes to odors following exposure. Chemosensory Perception, 1, 2-8.

Yeomans, M.R., Gould, N., Mobini, S. & Prescott, J. (2008) Flavor-learning facilitated by monosodium glutamate in humans. Physiology & Behavior, 93, 958-966.    

Lee, Y-M., Prescott, J. & Kim, K-O. (2008) PROP taster status and the rejection of foods with added tastants. Food Science and Biotechnology, 17 (5), 1066-1073.

Li, N., Prescott, J., Wu, Y., Barzi, F., Yu, X., Zhao,L., Huxley, R. & Neal, B. (2009) A reduced sodium, high potassium salt substitute did not alter food taste or acceptability in rural northern China. British Journal of Nutrition, 101 (7), 1088-1093.

Shankar, M.U., Levitan, C.A., Prescott, J. & Spence, C. (2009) The Influence of Color and Label Information on Responses to Chocolate. Chemosensory Perception, 2 (2), 53-58.    http://www.springerlink.com/content/xgt28k553j50p145/fulltext.pdf

Yeomans, M.R., Prescott, J. & Gould, N.G. (2009) Acquired hedonic and sensory characteristics of odours: Influence of sweet liker and propylthiouracil taster status. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62(8), 1648-1664. 
http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/148519_731193550_908325104.pdf

Prescott, J. & Murphy, S. (2009) Inhibition of evaluative and perceptual odour-taste learning by attention to the stimulus elements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62 (11), 2133-2140.              

Prescott, J. (2009) Rating a New Hedonic Scale: Commentary on "Derivation and Evaluation of a Labelled Hedonic Scale" by Lim, Wood and Green. Chemical Senses, 34, 735-737.
http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/bjp072ijkey=SVL0iXIHkDHsQuw&keytype=ref

Prescott, J. (2010) Flavor. In: E.B. Goldstein (ed.), Encyclopedia of Perception, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers, pp. 461-465.

Prescott, J. (2010) Supertasters. In: E.B. Goldstein (ed.), Encyclopedia of Perception, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers, pp. 964-967.

Prescott, J. (2010) A matter of taste. Australian Science, July/August, 24 - 27.

Le Berre, E., Jarmuzek, E., Béno, N., Etiévant, P., Prescott, J. and Thomas-Danguin, T. (2010) Perceptual and semantic learning modify the perception of odor blending mixtures. Chemosensory Perception, in press.

Prescott, J., Burns, J. & Frank, R.A. (2010) Influence of odor hedonics, food-relatedness and motivational state on human sniffing. Chemosensory Perception, in press.

Prescott, J. (2010) Multimodal chemosensory interactions and the perception of flavour. In: M. M. Murray & M. T. Wallace (eds) Frontiers in the Neural Bases of Multisensory Processes, in press.

Keynote Addresses

Multisensory Perspectives on Taste, The Food Summit, Wagenigen, The Netherlands, November 19 -21, 2008.

Origins of food preferences, Summer Program in Sensory Evaluation, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, August 8 – 9, 2009.

Glutamate and conditioned appetitive behaviors in humans, Symposium on Umami Taste, The Pangborn Symposium, Florence, Italy, July 26 – 30, 2009.

PROP tasting and the learning of odour perceptions and preferences, Symposium on PROP tasting, The Pangborn Symposium, Florence, Italy, July 26 – 30, 2009.

Analysis, Acceptability & Cognition, 4th European conference on sensory and consumer research, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, September 5-8, 2010.

Understanding and measuring food hedonics, Australian Institute of Food Science & Technology, Melbourne, July 27-29, 2010.
Recent invited talks:

Multisensory Integration in the Perception of Flavour, Unilever Multisensory Research Group, Unilever Research & Development, Vlardingen, The Netherlands, 13th November, 2007.

Flavour Perception: Learned Multimodal Integration, Dept. of Psychology research colloquium, University of Oxford, 27th November, 2007.

The influence of experience and attention on odor mixture quality. Australian Learning Group, University of Sydney, 11th August, 2008.

Determinants of learned sensory and hedonic properties of odours and flavours, Nestle Research Centre, Laussane, Switzerland, September 12th, 2008.

The origins of food pleasure, Royal Institution (Australia), Adelaide, 8th February, 2010

Back to top.

Teaching

Teaching Interests

• Perception
• Learning
• Scientific method

Coordinator:
• Critical Review & Analysis of Specialised Research
• Advanced Psychology Project
• Critical Review of Advanced Research Topic
• General Psychology

Courses

Back to top.

Other

Membership of Societies and Professional Bodies

• Association for Chemoreception Sciences
• Australasian Association for ChemoSensory Science
• Royal Institution, Australia
  
  

Appointments

• Association for Chemoreception Sciences
• Australasian Association for ChemoSensory Science
• Royal Institution, Australia
  
• Editor, Food Quality & Preference
• Executive Editorial Board, Chemosensory Perception
• Editorial Board, Journal of Sensory Studies
  
  Recent conference organisation:
  
• Member of Scientific Committee, 7th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Minnesota, USA., August, 2007
• Convenor and Chair, Symposium on Multisensory Processing in Flavour Perception. A satellite of the 9th International Multisensory Research Forum, Hamburg, Germany, July 15th, 2008.
• Member of Scientific Committee & Organising Committee, 3rd European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research, Hamburg, Germany, 7-10 September 2008.
• Co-Chair, Symposium on Umami taste and Food-Added Glutamates: New Insights on Taste and Physiology, 8th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Florence, July, 2009
• Member of Scientific Committee, 8th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Florence, July, 2009.
• Member of Scientific Committee, 4th European Conference on Sensory and Consumer Research, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, September 2010.
• Member of Scientific Committee, 20th European Chemosensory Research Organisation congress, Avignon, 15 -19th September, 2010.
• Co-Chair, 9th Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, Bangkok, July, 2011.

.

Awards and Prizes

• Inaugural Sense of Smell Institute, Science of Fragrance Award, 2006