The responses of the sense of taste of 8-9 year old children to sucrose, sodium chloride, citric acid and caffeine were compared to those of adults in an effort to establish the state of development of the sense in mid-childhood. Two procedures were used to determine detection thresholds and ability to discriminate between different concentrations of a tastant. These studies showed that male children had higher detection thresholds for sucrose and sodium chloride than adults and female children, whilst female children exhibited similar detection thresholds to adults. Both adults and children were able to classify the four common tastes according to their correct labels, and to discriminate between stimuli with the same dominant taste quality but the children were less successful. A ranking procedure was used to determine whether adults and children perceive binary taste mixtures similarly, and the results indicated that children were less successful. The ability of children and adults to use scaling procedures to estimate visual and non-visual stimuli was investigated, and it was found that children and adults had the same success at these tasks. Male and female children were found to have similar levels of maturity, with the exception of detection thresholds for sucrose and sodium chloride, indicating that their response characteristics are largely independent of gender. Overall, the results indicate that the sense of taste in mid-childhood is well developed, but some functions may not be mature / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)