A sensory property is human's perception or sensory response to a material stimulus (or stimuli). Despite of the intrinsic relationship between a sensory property and its corresponding material property, the two properties are fundamentally different. However, in sensory practice, the two different properties are very often mixed up and instrumental measured material property is often mistaken as sensory property. Correct differentiation of the two properties is critically important for fundamental understanding of human sensory and in particular for practical sensory analysis. While it is perfectly feasible using an instrument to measure material property, it is much more complicated when using an instrument for sensory perception prediction.

感觉特性是人类对物质刺激（或刺激）的感知或感觉反应。尽管在感官特性与其相应的材料特性之间存在内在联系，但这两种特性在根本上是不同的。但是，在感官实践中，经常将两种不同的属性混合在一起，并且将仪器测量的材料属性经常误认为是感官属性。正确区分这两个属性对于基本理解人类感官，特别是对于实际的感官分析至关重要。尽管使用仪器测量材料特性是完全可行的，但是使用仪器进行感官知觉预测时要复杂得多。