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Abstract

This article reviews studies investigating the effects of manipulating odor-information on perceived intensity, focusing on methodology of how to control odor presentation and to set experimental design. Recent findings suggest that the methodology regarding the odor presentation and experimental design is important to detect significant effects of manipulating odor-information, especially on perceived intensity. Perceived intensity rapidly changes depending on odor adaptation and habituation process. Thus it is critical to minimize the effects of adaptation and habituation to detect the cognitive effects on perceived intensity. It has been found that a short-duration, intermittent odor presentation method with between-subject design where participants experience only a single (positive/negative) condition is one of the best experimental procedures so far. The method avoids stagnation of odor stimuli around peripheral receptors within a nostril, letting participants keep relatively higher sensitivity to the odor till the end of the experiment session. The between-subject design also seems necessary to prevent the participants from undergoing two(positive and negative) conditions, avoiding habituation (learning) to the odor. Effects of manipulating odor-information on other experimental dependent variables such as pleasantness and odor qualities are also briefly introduced.