Psychophysical scales of the odor oiliness of homologous alcohols

In determining the relative oiliness of an alcohol, a category, a ratio estimation, and three magnitude scales were constructed from the observations of 12 Os who judged the oiliness of a C₂-C₁₀ series of homologous alcohols. Oiliness was found to be monotonicly increasing on [C₂, C₈], after which it declines, octanol being the oiliest. Ratio scales were stable and resemble power functions with exponents of 0.624 to 0.784 on this interval. The oiliness attribute has a short subjective range of 2.5/1, which is consistent with the tendency toward short ranges of olfactory attributes, generally. Oiliness across the series shows only slight evidence of being prothetic.