Re: Does the appearance of food have an affect on people's perception of taste?

This is a great idea for a project... and yes, food color does influence 
what flavor people think they are tasting.

The reason why you haven't found any information on this topic is that 
most of it is published in scientific books and journals that are only 
available in University libraries.  If you are interested in learning 
more, since you are located in Minnesota, you might try the University of 
Minnesota libraries.

You might also try the Food Science department at the University of 
Minnesota: http://fscn.che.umn.edu/

Your idea of using yellow colored vanilla pudding is an interesting one.  
You might also try a fruit flavor (like cherry) and see what the effect of 
different colors would be.  I know that other people who have tried this 
with hard candies have found that the color will mis-lead people about 
what they think the taste will be.

Good luck!