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Chem. Senses 25: 247-265, 2000
© Oxford University Press 2000

Latency and Accuracy of Discriminations of Odor Quality between Binary Mixtures and their Components

Paul M. Wise and William S. Cain

Chemosensory Perception Laboratory, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0957, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Paul M. Wise, Chemosensory Perception Laboratory, Department of Surgery (Otolaryngology), Mail Code 0957, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0957, USA. e-mail: pwise{at}ucsd.edu

Subjects made timed, same–different discriminations of odor quality, with the following principal findings: (i) latency reflected accuracy, with difficult discriminations, i.e. those between 50–50 mixtures and their components, requiring more time than less difficult discriminations, i.e. those between unmixed chemicals. This finding demonstrated the face validity of latency as a measure of qualitative similarity. (ii) Latency provided better resolution among pairs of odors than did errors of discrimination. This finding demonstrated the utility of collecting response times. (iii) Latency-based similarities among odors tested previously predicted similarities among pairs not yet tested. This finding demonstrated internal/predictive validity. (iv) A signal detection model assuming a differencing strategy best described the pattern of errors. Subjects appeared to make relative judgements regarding quality. (v) Finally, latency-based similarities between mixtures and their components demonstrated additivity. This finding suggested that binary mixtures fall on straight lines connecting their components in ‘odor-space’.


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