'I don't want to know about it !' Unpleasantness prevents odor identification - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2008

'I don't want to know about it !' Unpleasantness prevents odor identification

Résumé

Affective evaluation is one of the critical early stages in the cognitive processing of olfactory information and may involve different mechanisms for unpleasant and pleasant odorants. One hypothesis for such dissociation is that as opposed to pleasant odors, unpleasant smells would entail a "quick and dirty" pathway that may have weak links with the high-level cognitive function of language. In the present study we tested this hypothesis. Forty participants (age 19-25 years) were exposed to 9 odorants known to cover a wide range of hedonic responses (pleasant, neutral, unpleasant). The experiment consisted in 3 sessions: 1) in a 1-second sniff, we analyzed facial mimics and spontaneous verbal responses; 2) in a 2nd task subjects were to rank odorants from the most pleasant to the most unpleasant; 3) in a 3rd delayed task, participants smelled again the odorants, and described their impressions as precisely as possible. Statistical analyses included a variable named "identification rate" that was based on providing a label, no matter correct or not. "Identification rate" was entered into an ANOVA with duration of exposure (first task / third task) and odor valence (unpleasant, neutral vs. pleasant) as within-subject variables. Results showed effects of odor valence during both the first spontaneous task (p<.0008) and the third delayed task (p<.0001): in line with our hypothesis, odor "identification rate" was enhanced with pleasant odors and reduced with unpleasant odors (compared to neutral odors). Taken together, these results showed that attempting to identify a smell is a spontaneous mechanism dedicated to pleasant odorants and at a very less degree to bad smells.

Domaines

Linguistique
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Dates et versions

halshs-00600027 , version 1 (12-06-2011)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : halshs-00600027 , version 1

Citer

Fanny Rinck, Johan Poncelet, Moustafa Bensafi, Catherine Rouby. 'I don't want to know about it !' Unpleasantness prevents odor identification. International Symposium on olfaction and taste, ISOT XV, Jul 2008, San Francisco, United States. ⟨halshs-00600027⟩
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