Introduction

Odor perception is biased by verbal–semantic processes when cues on an odor’s source are readily available from the context. At the same time, olfaction has been characterized as basically sensation driven when this information is absent. In the present study, we examined whether language effects occur when verbal cues are absent and how expectations about an odor’s identity shape odor evaluations.

Methods

A total of 56 subjects were asked to rate 20 unlabeled odor samples on perceptual dimensions as well as quality attributes and to eventually provide an odor source name. In a subsequent session, they performed the same rating tasks on a set of written odor labels that was compiled individually for each participant. It included both the 20 correct odor names (true labels) and in any case of incorrect odor naming in the first session, the self–generated labels (identified labels).

Results

We compared odor ratings to ratings of both types of labels to test whether differences between odor and odor label evaluations were rooted in identification mechanisms. In cases of false identifications, we found higher consistencies between the evaluation of an odor and its identified label than between the description of an odor and its true (yet not associated) label.

Conclusions

These results indicate that odor evaluations are strongly affected by the mental image of an odor rather than the actual sensory codes and that this mental image is built spontaneously. Our findings imply that odors and odor labels are evaluated similarly for identical objects and that the differences found in similar studies may have been rooted in different mental representations being evaluated.

Implications

Odor sensations provoke odor naming without explicit demand. These self–generated hypotheses about an odor’s source exert a considerable semantic impact on odor perceptual processing, regardless of their accuracy.

中文翻译：

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气味和气味标签的等级差异如何与识别机制相关联

介绍

当可以从上下文中轻松获得气味来源的提示时，气味感知会受到言语语义过程的偏见。同时，嗅觉的特征是在缺少此信息时基本上是感觉驱动的。在本研究中，我们研究了在缺少言语提示时是否会发生语言影响，以及对气味识别的期望如何影响气味评估。

方法

要求总共56位受试者对20个未标记的气味样品的感官尺寸以及质量属性进行评分，并最终提供气味来源名称。在随后的会议中，他们对一组书面气味标签执行了相同的评分任务，这些气味标签是针对每个参与者单独编写的。它既包括20个正确的气味名称（真实标签），又包括在第一阶段中任何不正确的气味命名情况下的自生成标签（已识别标签）。

结果

我们将气味等级与两种标签的等级进行比较，以测试气味和气味标签评估之间的差异是否源于识别机制。在错误识别的情况下，我们发现气味评估与其识别的标签之间的一致性要比气味描述与其真实（尚未关联）的标签之间的一致性更高。

结论

这些结果表明，气味评估受气味的心理形象而非实际感官代码的强烈影响，并且这种心理形象是自发建立的。我们的发现表明，对于相同的物体，气味和气味标签的评估方法相似，并且相似研究中发现的差异可能源于所评估的不同心理表征。

含义

气味感觉会引起气味命名，而没有明确的要求。这些关于气味来源的自发假设，不管其准确性如何，都会对气味感知过程产生相当大的语义影响。