Neuroscientists have been looking at the connections between words and odor perception. What they’ve found is that how we judge an odor is influenced by knowing beforehand what we’re smelling. A Canadian study recently published in the Journal of Neurophysiology found significant effects of odor names on perceived pleasantness, intensity, and arousal. A French study published in the journal Chemical Senses found that an odor’s perceived pleasantness is effected by knowing the name, in both children and adults. Even 5-6 year olds are influenced by lexical knowledge of what they’re sniffing. According to the report, these results suggest that “during childhood, smells are not only encoded perceptually but that verbal encoding also steers contextual effects that may be prominent factors in the early memorization and categorization of odors.”
For more, see A Rose by Any Other Name: Would it Smell as Sweet? and Verbal Cues Modulate Hedonic Perception of Odors in 5-Year-Old Children as Well as in Adults.
