An excellent taste-discriminating ability is important in the improvement of cooking techniques. It is believed that various factors relate to the enhancement of this ability. In this study, we have examined wheather the preference for a taste would affect the discriminating ability or not. Employing 63 students of our college as subjects, discriminating abilities on four tastes, namely, sweetness, salty taste, sourness and umami taste each a various concentrations commonly observed everyday and preferences for these tastes were examined. The results are as follows: 1. No relationship was observed between the discriminating ability of each subject and her preference for each taste. (Umami taste was not examined in this test since it seemed to serve as the base of the taste of a food.) 2. Regarding the whole subjects, most of them extremely or highly prefered sweetness, though many subjects showed poor discriminating abilities. On the contrary, many subjects showed excellent discriminating abilities on salty taste and sourness, though most of them moderately prefered these tastes. The ratio of subjects having excellent discriminating abilities on umami taste was almost the same as that of those who showed poor discriminating abilities on it. This tendency might relate to the fact that almost a half of the subjects used artificial flavorings at home while another half used natural stocks. Thus it has been found that no relationship is observed between the discriminating ability and preference for each taste. However, the results of this study suggest the recent preferences for foods of junior college students. That is to say, they can discriminate tastes closely similar to those of familiar foods. However, their discriminating abilities seem to decrease as the tested tastes become apart from the familiar ones.