Right under our noses: Ambient scent and consumer responses

Despite frequent mention, we know relatively little about the effect of ambient environmental factors on consumer behavior. This paper discusses one important aspect of the environment, ambient scent. Based on research from several disciplines, a model describing the effect of ambient scent on consumers is propossed. Ambient scent is portrayed as an environmental cue that is compared with scent preferences to influence affective responses and ultimately approach-avoidance reactions. Moderators of these presumed relationships are also described. Suggestions for empirical research are provided and implications for marketing management are presented.     

The child's fear of infanticide and the nuclear cause of the neuroses

The concept that the child is predisposed to the fear of infanticide, and that that fear may be the central cause of his psychological problems and the primary motive force of his defense, allows us to view the defensive process from a different perspective than that offered by Freud's nuclear theory. Children's fantasies make it apparent that the idealization of their parents' image, and the devaluation of their own, constitute their basic defense against their fear.     

Stimulus intensity, attentional instructions, and the ear advantage during dichotic listening

The present experiment was designed to investigate the effects of the following two variables on the identification of dichotically presented CV syllables: (1) the relative difference in intensity levels of the stimuli presented to the two ears and (2) the instructions to attend to both ears or to focus attention on one ear. As expected for a verbal task, more CV's were identified from the right ear than from the left ear. Furthermore, identification of stimuli presented to one ear improved when (1) those stimuli were relatively higher in volume than the stimuli presented to the other ear and (2) when subjects were instructed to focus attention on only that ear rather than distribute attention across both ears. Of particular importance is the finding that the effects of relative stimulus intensity are the same under conditions of focused attention as under conditions of divided attention. This finding is inconsistent with an attention explantation of the relative intensity effects. Instead, the results are consistent with a model of dichotic listening in which ear of stimulus presentation and relative stimulus intensity influence a perceptual stage of information processing and attentional instructions influence a subsequent response selection stage.     

Effects of US-Alone Presentations on Human Evaluative Conditioning

In the context of evaluative conditioning, the effects of additional presentations of the unconditioned stimulus (US) prior to conditioning (US preexposure) or after conditioning (US postexposure) were examined using between- and within-subjects control conditions. Two experiments that differed with respect to the nationality of the subjects were conducted. In both experiments, US-alone presentations reduced the magnitude of the evaluative response. The US pre- and postexposure effects were observed in subjects classified as aware as well as in subjects classified as unaware of the experimental contingencies. Another finding is that the evaluative conditioning procedure described by Martin and Levey (1978; Levey & Martin, 1975) resulted in reliable conditioning effects also in an American sample, thus extending the scope of that special evaluative conditioning paradigm. The findings are discussed in the context of recent models of classical and evaluative conditioning. Especially, the unexpected US postexposure effect gives rise to speculations concerning the learning process underlying evaluative conditioning.     

Ocular motility and visuo-spatial attention in children with periventricular leukomalacia

Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is known to cause visual, motor, and cognitive impairments varying in their severity. Most studies focused on impairment at early ages. Little is known about the PVL's later outcome. Effects of neural plasticity are for instance insufficiently known to prognose precisely their behavioral outcome. It is even hard to determine the consequence of one defect on global development over time. Because of the established neural link between eye motion and space perception, 5-to-9 year-old PVL's were tested in visual detection, postural control, and space attention tasks. In this paper, discussion will focus on behavioral asymmetry, developmental outcome, and brain injury.     

The effect of comparative context on evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a change in the evaluation of a stimulus after the stimulus co-occurred with affective stimuli. The present research examined whether EC of one stimulus depends also on the co-occurrence of another stimulus with positive or negative stimuli. We paired two target people with affective stimuli. We found that a person who appeared eight times with positive stimuli and eight times with negative stimuli was liked more when the other person appeared always (16 times) with negative stimuli than when the other person appeared always with positive stimuli. The manipulation did not change the US evaluation or the general standard on the value dimension of what a positive or negative stimulus is. We suggest that like other evaluative traits (e.g., evil, pretty) co-occurrence with affective stimuli is sensitive to temporary standards. The manipulation changed the standard of what co-occurrence with affective stimuli is considered positive versus negative.