title: Influence of Ambient Odors on Time Perception in a Retrospective Paradigm.
abstract: Environmental stimuli can influence time perception, including sensory stimulations. Among them, odors are known to modulate emotion, attention, behavior, or performance, but few studies have investigated the possible effects of ambient odors on time perception. Thus, the present study aimed to compare in a retrospective paradigm the time estimation in three conditions, i.e., with phenyl ethyl alcohol as a pleasant odor, pyridine as unpleasant odor, and a control condition without ambient odor. A total of 90 participants (M age = 23 years, 10 months) took part in three different tasks, i.e., an aesthetic classification task, a sensorimotor checking task, and a mathematical operations task. Results showed a better accuracy of the time estimation in odor condition (1) independently of the characteristics of odorants (2) limited to tasks with a low cognitive involvement. These findings are discussed in relation to the possible role of attention and arousal in the modulation of time perception by ambient odors.
authors.affiliation: Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation (CSGA) Dijon, France; Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France gerard.brand@univ-fcomte.fr.
authors.forename: Gérard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brand
authors.affiliation: Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation (CSGA) Dijon, France; Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thiabaud
authors.affiliation: Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation (CSGA) Dijon, France; Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dray
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D055696:Olfactory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: ambient odor; arousal; hedonic valence; retrospective paradigm; time perception