Ayabe-Kanamura S, Schicker I, Laska M, Hudson R, Distel H, Kobayakawa T, Saito S
Institute of Psychology, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Chem Senses. 1998 Feb;23(1):31-8. doi: 10.1093/chemse/23.1.31.
There is a growing appreciation that experience with odors may strongly influence their perception. To further investigate this, the responses of 40 Japanese and 44 age-matched German women to everyday odorants were compared. Subjects were presented with 18 stimuli in squeeze bottles and asked to rate them according to intensity, familiarity, pleasantness and edibility, to describe associations elicited by them and, if possible, to name them. One-third of the odorants were presumed to be familiar to the Japanese only, one-third to the Germans and one-third to both populations. Significant differences were found between the two populations on all measures. Better performance by the Japanese in providing appropriate descriptors for 'Japanese' odorants and by the Germans for 'European' odorants supported the pre-selection of stimuli as culture-typical. Particularly clear differences between the two populations were found in pleasantness ratings. In general, a positive relationship was found between pleasantness and judgement of stimuli as edible, suggesting that culture-specific experiences-particularly of foods-may significantly influence odor perception. Somewhat unexpectedly, significant differences were also found between the two populations in intensity ratings for some odorants. These differences did not seem simply to be artefacts of the test situation and raise the possibility that experience may even influence such basic aspects of odor perception as stimulus intensity.
人们越来越认识到，对气味的体验可能会强烈影响对它们的感知。为了进一步研究这一点，比较了40名日本女性和44名年龄匹配的德国女性对日常气味剂的反应。向受试者展示了装在挤压瓶中的18种刺激物，并要求她们根据强度、熟悉程度、愉悦程度和可食用性对其进行评分，描述由它们引发的联想，并在可能的情况下说出它们的名称。三分之一的气味剂被认为只有日本人熟悉，三分之一只有德国人熟悉，三分之一两国人都熟悉。在所有测量指标上，两国人群之间都发现了显著差异。日本人在为“日本”气味剂提供合适描述词方面表现更好，德国人在为“欧洲”气味剂提供合适描述词方面表现更好，这支持了将刺激物预先选择为文化典型的做法。在愉悦程度评分方面，两国人群之间的差异尤为明显。一般来说，愉悦程度与将刺激物判断为可食用之间存在正相关关系，这表明特定文化的体验——尤其是食物方面的体验——可能会显著影响气味感知。有点出乎意料的是，在一些气味剂的强度评分方面，两国人群之间也发现了显著差异。这些差异似乎不仅仅是测试情境造成的假象，这增加了一种可能性，即体验甚至可能会影响气味感知的一些基本方面，比如刺激强度。
