부산대학교 도서관

Although people consume foods and beverages with a variety of background sounds in everyday life, little attention has been paid to influences of background sound cues on perception and acceptability of odors. This study aimed to determine whether background sound cues (carbonation sound and white noise) affect individuals’ performance in the odor discrimination task. Sixty participants were asked to conduct the odor discrimination task using the “Sniffin’ Sticks” battery twice on different days: 1) in silence and 2) in the presence of carbonation sound or white noise. Participants showed significantly worse performance in the odor discrimination task in the presence of either background sound than in the silent condition. Although the background soundinduced decrease in the odor discrimination performance was likely to be greater in the white noise condition than in the carbonation one, there was no statistical difference between the two conditions. Interestingly, participants who were more likely to be extroverts showed better performance in the odor discrimination task while listening to background sounds. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence that background sound cues can impair olfactory performance in the odor discrimination task, and that extraversion/ introversion traits play a role in modulating the background sound-induced olfactory discrimination performance.