Measurement of Emotion in Olfactory Research

摘要

Odors have a special link to the emotions that can be assessed by careful measurement. This chapter reviews research carried out to measure the emotional effects of odors both physiologically and using self-report methodology. Physiological monitoring of blood pressure, brain waves, various measures of the autonomic nervous system, and the startle reflex have demonstrated that pleasant versus unpleasant odors generally evoke a positive versus a negative emotional response. However, these methods have not successfully demonstrated a finer discrimination among different positive emotions, such as stimulation from relaxation. Various approaches to measuring moods, or self-reported emotions, are described. Issues relating to the dimensions and categories of mood are considered, as well as whether mood effects of fragrances are best measured in a before-after, a retrospective, or a forced-choice methodology. A simple, forced-choice technique is highlighted, called Mood Mapping~(~R) It measures a respondent's mood association to a flavor or fragrance chosen from a set of 8 mood categories. Comparisons are made among different fragrances or flavors based on the distribution of mood votes across respondents. It has been used to screen hundreds of perfumery materials, as well as many more Living~(~R) flowers, fruits, and spices, commercial fragrances, and fragrances in development. A large database has thus been cataloged and incorporated into a perfumer's tool called the Consumer Fragrance Thesaurus. This tool gives guidance to IFF's creative staff in developing fragrances for aromatherapy based products, where moods are a principal concern, as well as other fragrances, where other attributes are of key interest (e.g., clean, fresh, etc.).