The Effect of Visual Images on Perception of Odors

Abstract

We make full use of our sensory system, chiefly the visual system, to recognize objects around us. The visual and auditory systems are extroceptive systems, which can detect an object from a distance. On the other hand, gustatory and somatosentory systems are introceptive systems, which can detect an object only when the object is located near us. The olfactory system has both extroceptive and introceptive characteristics. But the effective distance from objects for theolfactory system is nearer than for the visual system. Thus it is highly adaptive to depend on the visual system to recognize objects in the external world. We recognize an object firstly by the visual system and then we turn our attention to the object and determine its other sensory characteristics, e.g. its odor. As Dalton (2002) described in her review, olfaction has a strong tendency to be affected by top-down (or conceptually driven) processes. Thus, it is hypothesized that we perceive and recognize an object’s odor under the influence of a topdown process driven by the visual system. In this paper, we first review the research on effects of vision (color) on olfactory perception and then we review studies concerning the effects of visual images (pictures) on olfactory perception. We then introduce a concept of this phenomenon.