Remembering a particular taste is crucial in food intake and associative learning. We investigated whether taste can be dynamically encoded, maintained, and retrieved on short time-scales consistent with working memory (WM). We used novel single and multi-item taste recognition tasks to investigate the organization and capacity of gustatory WM. In Experiment 1, we show that a single taste can be reliably recognized despite multiple oro-sensory interferences suggesting active and resilient maintenance. When multiple tastes were presented, the resolution with which these could be maintained, depended on their serial position implying a role of attention. Participants reliably recognized up to three tastes, compatible with a limited capacity of gustatory WM. Lastly, recognition was better for match than foil trials likely due to increased stimulus similarity in foil trials. Together, the results advocate a hybrid model of gustatory WM with a limited number of slots where items are stored with varying precision.

Remembering a particular taste is crucial in food intake and associative learning. We investigated whether taste can be dynamically encoded, maintained, and retrieved on short time scales consistent with working memory (WM). We use novel single and multi-item taste recognition tasks to show that a single taste can be reliably recognized despite repeated oro-sensory interference suggesting active and resilient maintenance (Experiment 1, N = 21). When multiple tastes were presented (Experiment 2, N = 20), the resolution with which these were maintained depended on their serial position, and recognition was reliable for up to three tastes suggesting a limited capacity of gustatory WM. Lastly, stimulus similarity impaired recognition with increasing set size, which seemed to mask the awareness of capacity limitations. Together, the results advocate a hybrid model of gustatory WM with a limited number of slots where items are stored with varying precision.