Olfactory and Gustatory Aspects

Riener, Robert; Harders, Matthias

doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-4011-5_6

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…Despite the importance of scent in our everyday life olfaction is rarely applied in the scope of VEs ( Baus and Bouchard, 2010 ). Recent technological developments enable the effective and localized dispersion and control of scents ( Yanigada et al, 2003 , 2004 , 2005 ; Yu et al, 2003 ; Oshima et al, 2007 ; for reviews see Richard et al, 2006 ; Riener and Harders, 2012 ), thereby providing VE researchers and developers with the ability to utilize scent to create compelling VEs ( Tomono et al, 2011 ). Enhancing VEs with olfactory stimuli may enhance user experience by heightening the sense of reality ( Chalmers et al, 2009 ; Ghinea and Ademoye, 2011 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual attention for a desktop virtual environment with ambient scent

Toet¹,

Schaik²

2013

Front. Psychol.

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In the current study participants explored a desktop virtual environment (VE) representing a suburban neighborhood with signs of public disorder (neglect, vandalism, and crime), while being exposed to either room air (control group), or subliminal levels of tar (unpleasant; typically associated with burned or waste material) or freshly cut grass (pleasant; typically associated with natural or fresh material) ambient odor. They reported all signs of disorder they noticed during their walk together with their associated emotional response. Based on recent evidence that odors reflexively direct visual attention to (either semantically or affectively) congruent visual objects, we hypothesized that participants would notice more signs of disorder in the presence of ambient tar odor (since this odor may bias attention to unpleasant and negative features), and less signs of disorder in the presence of ambient grass odor (since this odor may bias visual attention toward the vegetation in the environment and away from the signs of disorder). Contrary to our expectations the results provide no indication that the presence of an ambient odor affected the participants’ visual attention for signs of disorder or their emotional response. However, the paradigm used in present study does not allow us to draw any conclusions in this respect. We conclude that a closer affective, semantic, or spatiotemporal link between the contents of a desktop VE and ambient scents may be required to effectively establish diagnostic associations that guide a user’s attention. In the absence of these direct links, ambient scent may be more diagnostic for the physical environment of the observer as a whole than for the particular items in that environment (or, in this case, items represented in the VE).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual attention for a desktop virtual environment with ambient scent

Toet¹,

Schaik²

2013

Front. Psychol.

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No Effect of Ambient Odor on the Affective Appraisal of a Desktop Virtual Environment with Signs of Disorder

Toet

Schaik²,

Theunissen³

2013

PLoS ONE

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BackgroundDesktop virtual environments (VEs) are increasingly deployed to study the effects of environmental qualities and interventions on human behavior and safety related concerns in built environments. For these applications it is essential that users appraise the affective qualities of the VE similar to those of its real world counterpart. Previous studies have shown that factors like simulated lighting, sound and dynamic elements all contribute to the affective appraisal of a desktop VE. Since ambient odor is known to affect the affective appraisal of real environments, and has been shown to increase the sense of presence in immersive VEs, it may also be an effective tool to tune the affective appraisal of desktop VEs. This study investigated if exposure to ambient odor can modulate the affective appraisal of a desktop VE with signs of public disorder.MethodParticipants explored a desktop VE representing a suburban neighborhood with signs of public disorder (neglect, vandalism and crime), while being exposed to either room air or subliminal levels of unpleasant (tar) or pleasant (cut grass) ambient odor. Whenever they encountered signs of disorder they reported their safety related concerns and associated affective feelings.ResultsSigns of crime in the desktop VE were associated with negative affective feelings and concerns for personal safety and personal property. However, there was no significant difference between reported safety related concerns and affective connotations in the control (no-odor) and in each of the two ambient odor conditions.ConclusionAmbient odor did not affect safety related concerns and affective connotations associated with signs of disorder in the desktop VE. Thus, semantic congruency between ambient odor and a desktop VE may not be sufficient to influence its affective appraisal, and a more realistic simulation in which simulated objects appear to emit scents may be required to achieve this goal.

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Olfactory and Gustatory Aspects

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Visual attention for a desktop virtual environment with ambient scent

Visual attention for a desktop virtual environment with ambient scent

No Effect of Ambient Odor on the Affective Appraisal of a Desktop Virtual Environment with Signs of Disorder

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