Fanny Rinck

Semantic Knowledge Influences Prewired Hedonic Responses to Odors

Background Odor hedonic perception relies on decoding the physicochemical properties of odorant molecules and can be influenced in humans by semantic knowledge. The effect of semantic knowledge on such prewired hedonic processing over the life span has remained unclear. Methodology/Principal Findings The present study measured hedonic response to odors in different age groups (children, teenagers, young adults, and seniors) and found that children and seniors, two age groups characterized by either low level of (children) or weak access to (seniors) odor semantic knowledge, processed odor hedonics more on the basis of their physicochemical properties. In contrast, in teenagers and young adults, who show better levels of semantic odor representation, the role of physicochemical properties was less marked. Conclusions/Significance These findings demonstrate for the first time that the biological determinants that make an odor pleasant or unpleasant are more powerful at either end of the life span.

Perceptual and Sensorimotor Differences between “Good” and “Poor” Olfactory Mental Imagers

Like odor perception, odor imagery is characterized by wide variability between individuals. The present two‐part study sought to assess whether this inter‐individual variability is underlain by behavioral differences in actual odor perception. In study 1, subjects judged the intensity, pleasantness, familiarity and edibility of 3 odorants. Participants were split into two olfactory imagery groups (“good” versus “poor” olfactory imagers) according to their scores on an imagery questionnaire. Results showed that good olfactory imagers judged all odors as more familiar and more edible than did poor olfactory imagers. Study 2 sought to determine whether these effects derived from a particular strategy of reenacting olfactomotor responses to smells on the part of good olfactory imagers, by recording their sniffs during odor perception. Results revealed that good olfactory imagers sniffed all odors longer and, again, judged these same odors as more edible and familiar. This supports the hypothesis of more complete odor processing and better access to odor semantics in good olfactory imagers.

Hedonic appreciation and verbal description of pleasant and unpleasant odors in untrained, trainee cooks, flavorists and perfumers

Olfaction is characterized by a salient hedonic dimension. Previous studies have shown that these affective responses to odors are modulated by physicochemical, physiological, and cognitive factors. The present study examined expertise influenced processing of pleasant and unpleasant odors on both perceptual and verbal levels. For this, performance on two olfactory tasks was compared between novices, trainee cooks, and experts (perfumers and flavorists): Members of all groups rated the intensity and pleasantness of pleasant and unpleasant odors (perceptual tasks). They were also asked to describe each of the 20 odorants as precisely as possible (verbal description task). On a perceptual level, results revealed that there were no group-related differences in hedonic ratings for unpleasant and pleasant odors. On a verbal level, descriptions of smells were richer (e.g., chemical, olfactory qualities, and olfactory sources terms) and did not refer to pleasantness in experts compared to untrained subjects who used terms referring to odor sources (e.g., candy) accompanied by terms referring to odor hedonics. In conclusion, the present study suggests that as novices, experts are able to perceptually discriminate odors on the basis of their pleasantness. However, on a semantic level, they conceptualize odors differently, being inclined to avoid any reference to odor hedonics.

Hétérogénéité des textes, hétérogénéité des genres

La circulation entre les genres, leur hybridite, leur mixite, participent a la dynamique des genres a l’interieur d’une sphere d’activite ou entre spheres et correspondent a une propriete inherente aux genres, leur caractere heterogene. Dans cet article, nous cherchons a approcher cette heterogeneite des genres du point de vue de ses manifestations linguistiques. Nous basant sur des recherches menees sur differents types de corpus — rapports educatifs, remontrances parlementaires, articles scientifiques, memoires de recherche — et mettant en œuvre differents outils de l’analyse du discours — enonciation, noms de genres, formules et segments repetes, analyse statistique — nous cherchons a mettre en evidence ce qui, dans la materialite des textes, marque l’heterogeneite des genres. Ce faisant nous proposons egalement une vision plus complexe de la notion de sphere d’activite, que nous concevons comme une notion heuristique, qui, a l’instar du genre, n’est pas donnee mais construite.