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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on September 10, 2007
Chemical Senses 2008 33(1):65-71; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjm063
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Olfactory Conditioning of Positive Performance in Humans

Simon Chu

Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK

Correspondence to be sent to: Simon Chu, Department of Psychology, The University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK. e-mail: schu{at}uclan.ac.uk


  Abstract

Olfactory conditioning effects have been widely demonstrated in the animal literature but more seldom in human populations and rarely of consciously controlled human behaviors. Building upon previous work on negative performance, we report the first experimental evidence that odors can be used effectively in a classical conditioning paradigm to positively influence human behavior. In the present study, underachieving schoolchildren experienced unexpected success at a paper-and-pencil task in the presence of an ambient odor. When they later experienced the same odor again, performance on other tasks was superior to that of relevant control groups. These data substantially extend previous results on human olfactory classical conditioning and show that odors potentially can be used to exert positive influences on human behavior.

Key words: associative learning, classical conditioning, emotion, odor, self-esteem, success

Accepted 14 August 2007


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