EFFECTS OF OLFACTORY STIMULATION 209 role in the regulation and maintenance of vigilance (28). These possibilities warrant further investigation. Finally, note that beyond providing the initial experimental demonstration that certain fragrances can bolster sustained attention, our results have meaning for an even broader issue, that of intersensory interaction. Studies of interactions among stimuli in different sense modalities have, for the most part, been confined to combinations drawn from the auditory, visual, and tactual modes (29). To our knowledge, the data described in this paper are the first to show that accessory olfactory stimulation can enhance the detection of visual stimuli. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study indicate that exposure to whiffs of air scented with the fragrance of Muguet or Peppermint can enhance the rate of signal detections in a vigilance task without a concomitant increase in errors of commission. These findings suggest that exposure to fragrance may serve as an effective form of ancillary stimulation in tasks demanding close attention for prolonged periods of time. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This paper is based on an invited address given at the Annual Scientific Seminar of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, San Francisco, CA, May 11, 1990, and a talk given at the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, New Orleans, LA, Nov. 17, 1990. We are grateful to Marina Munteanu, Craig Warren, and Steven Warrenberg of Inter- national Flavors and Fragrances, Inc., for suggesting that we undertake the research and for providing extensive technical assistance to Jonathan Gluckman, Sandy Matthews, Judith A. Thiemann, and Mary Anne Toledo, for invaluable help with instrumentation and data collection and to the Fragrance Research Fund for financial support. REFERENCES (1) D. R. Davies and R. Parasuraman, The Psychology of Vigilance (Academic Press, London, 1982), pp. 5-9. (2) J. S. Warm, "An Introduction to Vigilance," in Sustained Attention in Human Performance, J. S. Warm, Ed. (Wiley, Chichester, U.K., 1984), pp. 1-14. (3) K. Neuchterlein, R. Parasuraman, and W. Jiang, Visual sustained attention: Image degradation produces rapid sensitivity decrement over time, Science, 220, 327-329 (1983). (4) M. Frankenhaeuser, B. Nordheden, A. L. Myrsten, and B. Post, Psychophysiological reactions to understimulation and overstimulation, Acta Psychol., 35, 298-308 (1971). (5) U. Lundberg and M. Frankenhaeuser, Pituitary-Adrenal and Sympathetic-Adrenal Correlates of Distress and Effort, Report No. 548 (University of Stockholm Department of Psychology, Stockholm, 1979). (6) C. A. Hovanitz, K. Chin, and J. S. Warm, Complexities in life stress•lysfunction relationships: A case in point--Tension headache, J. Behav. Med., 12, 55-75 (1989). (7) R. I. Thackray, J. P. Bailey, and R. M. Touchstone, "Physiological, Subjective and Performance Correlates of Reported Boredom and Monotony While Performing a Simulated Radar Control Task," in Vigilance: Theory, Operational Performance and Physiological Correlates, R. R. Mackie Ed. (Plenum, New York, 1977), pp. 203-215. (8) J. D. Deaton and R. Parasuraman, "Effects of Task Demands and Age on Vigilance and Subjective
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