Abstract
An odor of ambiguous quality was shown to shift in rated odor character after presentation of more prototypical odors, always in a direction contrasting with the previous context. The terpene aroma compound, dihydromyrcenol, is perceived as partially woody (pine-like) and partially citrus (lime-like) in odor character. Citrus ratings of this odor increased following exposure to woody odors. Conversely, woody ratings of dihydromyrcenol increased following exposure to citrus odors. Possible explanations for this sequential contrast effect include shifts in cognitive category boundaries, response frequency biases, and simple sensory adaptation.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Blakemore, C., & Sutton, P. (1969). Size adaptation: A new aftereffect. Science, 166, 246–247.
Cain, W. S. (1975). Odor intensity: Mixtures and masking. Chemical Senses & Flavor, 1, 339–352.
Diehl, R. L. (1981). Feature detectors for speech: A critical reappraisal. Psychological Bulletin, 89, 1–18.
Eimas, P. D., & Corbit, J. (1973). Selective adaptation of linguistic feature detectors. Cognitive Psychology, 4, 99–109.
Engen, T. (1982). The perception of odors. New York: Academic Press.
Koster, E. (1971). Adaptation and cross adaptation in olfaction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Utrecht.
Lawless, H. T. (1986). Sensory interactions in mixtures. Journal of Sensory Studies, 1, 259–274.
Lawless, H. T. (1987). An olfactory analogy to release from mixture suppression in taste. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 25, 266–268.
Lawless, H. T. (1989). Exploration of fragrance categories and ambiguous odors using multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Chemical Senses, 14, 349–360.
McBurney, D. H., & Bartoshuk, L. M. (1973). Interactions between stimuli with different taste qualities. Physiology & Behavior, 10, 1101–1106.
Parducci, A. (1965). Category judgment: A range-frequency model. Psychological Review, 72, 407–418.
Samuel, A. G. (1986). Red herring detectors in speech perception: In defense of selective adaptation. Cognitive Psychology, 18, 452–499.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Part of these results were presented at the 1988 meeting of the Psychonomic Society. The author thanks David A. Stevens and Terry Acree for thoughtful discussions.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lawless, H.T. A sequential contrast effect in odor perception. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 29, 317–319 (1991). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333930
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333930