Odorant evaluation: a study of ethanethiol and tetrahydrothiophene as warning agents in propane

Whisman, M.L.; Goetzinger, J.W.; Cotton, Faye O.; Brinkman, Dennis W.

doi:10.1021/es60147a003

Cited by 27 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although some research has reported a female advantage in olfactory processing (Doty et al, 1981;Kirk-Smith et al, 1983), this is usually when odor concentrations are at subthreshold levels (Whisman, Goetzinger, Cotton, & Brinkman, 1978). The absence of sex differences is consistent with many studies in which superthreshold odor concentrations have been used (e.g., Herz & Cupchik, 1995;Lyman & McDaniel, 1990;Schab, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

The effects of cue distinctiveness on odor-based context-dependent memory

Herz

1997

Memory & Cognition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The distinctiveness of an ambient odor was examined in relation to its success as a cue in contextdependent memory. Distinctiveness was examined in terms of both cue novelty and contextual appropriateness. Two experiments were conducted in which three different ambient odors that varied in familiarity and contextual appropriateness were manipulated at an incidental word learning encoding session and at a free recall retrieval session 48 h later. Experiment 1 revealed that when a novel ambient odor (osmanthus) was the available context cue, word recall was better than in any other condition. Further, among familiar odor cues, recall was better with a contextually inappropriate odor (peppermint) than with a contextually appropriate odor (clean fresh pine). Experiment 2 confirmed that superior word recall with osmanthus and peppermint depended on the odor cue's being available at both encoding and retrieval, and that the relation of an odor to the situational context is a key factor for predicting its effectiveness as a retrieval cue.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

The effects of cue distinctiveness on odor-based context-dependent memory

Herz

1997

Memory & Cognition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nowhere is this more evident than in odor detection ( Figure 3A). The odorant ethyl mercaptan, which is often added to propane as a warning agent, can be detected at concentrations below 1 part per billion (ppb) and perhaps as low as 0.2 ppb (Whisman et al 1978). This is equivalent to approximately three drops of odorant within an Olympic-size swimming pool-given two pools, a human could detect by smell which pool contained the three drops of odorant.…”

Section: Humans Are Astonishingly Good At Odor Detection and Discrimimentioning

confidence: 99%

An Odor is Not Worth a Thousand Words: From Multidimensional Odors to Unidimensional Odor Objects

Yeshurun

Sobel

2010

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

358

317

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Olfaction is often referred to as a multidimensional sense. It is multidimensional in that approximately 1000 different receptor types, each tuned to particular odor aspects, together contribute to the olfactory percept. In humans, however, this percept is nearly unidimensional. Humans can detect and discriminate countless odorants, but can identify few by name. The one thing humans can and do invariably say about an odor is whether it is pleasant or not. We argue that this hedonic determination is the key function of olfaction. Thus, the boundaries of an odor object are determined by its pleasantness, which--unlike something material and more like an emotion--remains poorly delineated with words.

show abstract

“…Such behaviors can depend on keen human olfactory detection. For example, the odorant ethyl mercaptan that is often added to propane as a warning agent, can be detected at concentrations ranging between 0.2 ppb (parts per billion) (Whisman et al 1978 ) and 0.009 ppb (Nagata 2003 ). This is equivalent to approximately three drops of odorant within an Olympic-size swimming pool—given two pools, a human could detect by smell which pool contained the three drops of odorant.…”

Section: Humans Have a Superb Sense Of Smellmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human olfaction: a constant state of change-blindness

2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Paradoxically, although humans have a superb sense of smell, they don’t trust their nose. Furthermore, although human odorant detection thresholds are very low, only unusually high odorant concentrations spontaneously shift our attention to olfaction. Here we suggest that this lack of olfactory awareness reflects the nature of olfactory attention that is shaped by the spatial and temporal envelopes of olfaction. Regarding the spatial envelope, selective attention is allocated in space. Humans direct an attentional spotlight within spatial coordinates in both vision and audition. Human olfactory spatial abilities are minimal. Thus, with no olfactory space, there is no arena for olfactory selective attention. Regarding the temporal envelope, whereas vision and audition consist of nearly continuous input, olfactory input is discreet, made of sniffs widely separated in time. If similar temporal breaks are artificially introduced to vision and audition, they induce “change blindness”, a loss of attentional capture that results in a lack of awareness to change. Whereas “change blindness” is an aberration of vision and audition, the long inter-sniff-interval renders “change anosmia” the norm in human olfaction. Therefore, attentional capture in olfaction is minimal, as is human olfactory awareness. All this, however, does not diminish the role of olfaction through sub-attentive mechanisms allowing subliminal smells a profound influence on human behavior and perception.

show abstract

Odorant evaluation: a study of ethanethiol and tetrahydrothiophene as warning agents in propane

Cited by 27 publications

References 3 publications

The effects of cue distinctiveness on odor-based context-dependent memory

The effects of cue distinctiveness on odor-based context-dependent memory

An Odor is Not Worth a Thousand Words: From Multidimensional Odors to Unidimensional Odor Objects

Human olfaction: a constant state of change-blindness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About