Effects of combining visual and olfactory information on affective impressions

Abstract

We receive different impressions from different visual images or odors, but it was not clear what kinds of impression the combination of visual images and odors elicits. Thus, we conducted experiments where we compared affective impressions when only olfactory information, only visual information, and combinations of olfactory and visual information were presented. In this experiment, the subjects were asked to rate the impression in ‘mild-sharp’ and ‘clear-dense’ dimensions using a visual-analogue-scale method when they were shown each of 8 different odors, 8 different visual images, or combinations of these different types of visual images and odors. The subjects were also asked to judge how much each specific combination of odor and visual image was harmonious on a 7-point scale. The results show some averaging effects when visual and olfactory information fell into different categories (i.e., mild, sharp, clear or dense) in the impression space. On the other hand, the impression of image–odor combination tended to be enhanced when the impression of odor or image alone fell into the same category along with the condition when they were judged as being harmonious. These results suggest that the way combination of visual and olfactory information elicits the impression may depend on the impression of individual visual and olfactory information and whether they are harmonious.