Cognitive and affective components of stimuli presented in three modes

Abstract

This study was conducted to compare responses to stimuli presented in three different modalities: olfactory, visual, and lexical (the written name of the object). Cognitive aspects of these responses as well as affective components were examined. The subjects were placed at random into one of three experimental groups and were tested individually. Each subject was asked to smell, to view, or to see the name of six common items and to write whatever immediately came to mind after each stimulus presentation. The results indicate that the olfactory mode produced the shortest answers, with the largest amount of affect. The results are discussed in terms of their implications about the structure and nature of concepts and how such concepts interrelate with different sensory modalities. © 1993, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.