Multidimensional Analysis of Twenty-One Odors

Berglund, Birgitta; Berglund, Ulf; Engen, Trygg; Ekman, Gösta

doi:10.1037/e611582010-001

Cited by 33 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This characterization of the first PC as pleasantness is in agreement with previous research (Richardson and Zucco, 1989). Pleasantness is the primary perceptual aspect humans use to discriminate odorants (Schiffman, 1974;Godinot and Sicard, 1995) or combine them into groups (Berglund et al, 1973;Schiffman et al, 1977). Pleasant and unpleasant odorants are evaluated at different speeds (Bensafi et al, 2002) and by dissociable neural substrates, as evidenced in both electrophysiological recordings (Kobal et al, 1992;Pause and Krauel, 2000;Masago et al, 2001) and functional neuroimaging studies (Zald and Pardo, 1997;Royet et al, 2000;Gottfried et al, 2002;Anderson et al, 2003;Rolls et al, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Predicting Odor Pleasantness from Odorant Structure: Pleasantness as a Reflection of the Physical World

Khan

Luk²,

Flinker³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

344

296

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Although it is agreed that physicochemical features of molecules determine their perceived odor, the rules governing this relationship remain unknown. A significant obstacle to such understanding is the high dimensionality of features describing both percepts and molecules. We applied a statistical method to reduce dimensionality in both odor percepts and physicochemical descriptors for a large set of molecules. We found that the primary axis of perception was odor pleasantness, and critically, that the primary axis of physicochemical properties reflected the primary axis of olfactory perception. This allowed us to predict the pleasantness of novel molecules by their physicochemical properties alone. Olfactory perception is strongly shaped by experience and learning. However, our findings suggest that olfactory pleasantness is also partially innate, corresponding to a natural axis of maximal discriminability among biologically relevant molecules.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Predicting Odor Pleasantness from Odorant Structure: Pleasantness as a Reflection of the Physical World

Khan

Luk²,

Flinker³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

344

296

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show abstract

“…Furthermore this consensus is supported by the fact that the three common dimensions of edibility, pleasantness and cosmetic acceptability underlie the odor representation structure for the three cultural groups. These results confirm previous studies that used the MDS method to evaluate the relevant dimensions underlying odor perception (Berglund, Berglund, Engen, & Ekman, 1973;Schiffman, Robinson, & Erickson, 1977;Woskow, 1968). These authors showed that the hedonic dimension was the most relevant and separated the overall odor space in odors that people like and odors that people dislike.…”

Section: Predictor Variable Francesupporting

confidence: 91%

Culture and odor categorization: agreement between cultures depends upon the odors

Chrea

Valentin

Sulmont-Rossé

et al. 2004

Food Quality and Preference

134

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This study evaluated the effect of culture on the relationship between psychological dimensions underlying odor perception and odor categorization. In a first experiment, French, Vietnamese and American participants rated several perceptual dimensions of everyday odorants, and sorted these odorants on the basis of their similarity. Results showed that the three groups of participants differed in their perceptual judgments but agreed in categorizing the odors into four consensual groups (floral, sweet, bad, and nature). Three dimensions--pleasantness, edibility, cosmetic acceptability--discriminated these groups in the same way in the three countries. In a second experiment, the participants sorted only fruit and flower odors to evaluate whether a consensus emerges at a finer level. Results showed that French and American participants clearly separated fruit from flower odors whereas this separation was nonexistent for Vietnamese participants. This difference could arise from cultural differences in odor functions.

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“…Unlike in Borg's early work on taste intensity (Borg, Diamant, Strom, & Zotterman, 1967), there is no peripheral nerve from which to record perceptual dissimilarity and no stimulus continuum against which to plot perceptual difference. The metrics examined here assume that the general techniques of magnitude scaling provide an appropriate measure of dissimilarity, a position supported by a considerable body ofliterature (Berglund, Berglund, Engen, & Ekman, 1973;Gregson & Mitchell, 1974;Indow & Uchizono, 1960;Moskowitz & Barbe, 1976;Schiffman, Musante, & Conger, 1978;Schiffman, Nash, & Dackis, 1978;Schiffman et aI., 1977). As mentioned previously, the choice of descriptors and the placement of these descriptors on the LDS were determined without reference to a specific stimulus modality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The labeled dissimilarity scale: A metric of perceptual dissimilarity

Kurtz

White

Hayes

2000

Perception & Psychophysics

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Fundamental to the concept of psychological distance is the idea that confusability allows discovery of the perceptual relationships between objects, which provides understanding of the underlying principles that govern the functioning of a system. Thus, judgments of dissimilarity (conceptually proportional to the inverse of confusability) may provide insight into the elusive underlying quality-coding mechanisms in that sensory system. In the present experiments, a labeled dissimilarity scale (LDS) that reflects the magnitude of odorant dissimilarity was developed in a fashion similar to that reported by Green (Green, Shaffer, & Gilmore, 1993).This scale was produced by rating the perceptual intensity implied by adverbs describing different levels of dissimilarity, and then attaching those descriptors to appropriate locations on a numerical scale. The usefulness of the scale was demonstrated by its ability to produce visual color space with ratings of dissimilarity of Munsell color chips. The stability and reliability of the LDSwas evaluated by comparing it with the traditional scaling technique of magnitude estimation (ME). It was found that the scales produced similar ratings of odorant dissimilarity and showed a similar susceptibility to the effects of contrast convergence. However, the coefficients of variation of dissimilarities rated with MEwere much higher than those produced with the LDS. The subjects also dealt with the LDSwithout the anxiety that usually accompanies first-time users of ME. The LDS provided stable ratings of odorant dissimilarity and preserved the inferred ratio scale properties of ME.The concept of psychological distance, as embodied by dissimilarity between stimuli, has proven useful in the understanding of many perceptual and cognitive processes. Investigations of dissimilarity take a number of forms, including errors in identification that are often summarized in confusion matrices (actually a measure of confusability), measures of discrimination, and direct scaling of perceptual similarity/dissimilarity. Regardless of the form, the premise of investigations of psychological distance is that dissimilarity allows for the discovery ofthe psychological or perceptual relationships between objects, thus suggesting the principles that govern the functioning of a system.A prime example of the utility of the concept of psychological distance can be found through the evaluation of color vision in normal and colorblind people. It is a simple task to ask people with normal color vision to rate the degree of dissimilarity between the hues of variousThe authors express their gratitude to Maxwell Mozell and Lawrence Marks, both of whom offered excellent advice on an earlier draft of this paper. The authors also thank the reviewers of this article, particularly Barry Green, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. Experiment 2 was presented at the 1997 International Symposium of 01faction and Taste, with the abstract of that presentation published in

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Multidimensional Analysis of Twenty-One Odors

Cited by 33 publications

References 8 publications

Predicting Odor Pleasantness from Odorant Structure: Pleasantness as a Reflection of the Physical World

Predicting Odor Pleasantness from Odorant Structure: Pleasantness as a Reflection of the Physical World

Culture and odor categorization: agreement between cultures depends upon the odors

The labeled dissimilarity scale: A metric of perceptual dissimilarity

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