Presentation Details
| A Novel Approach to the Assessment of Odor Awareness Daniel Marek1, Marta Rokosz1, Anna Oleszkiewicz1, 2. 1Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland.2Smell and Taste Clinic, Departament of Otorhinoloaryngology, Techniche Universitat Dresden, Dresden, Germany |
Abstract
Odor awareness is a metacognitive capacity associated with the perception of environmental odors and their significance in everyday life. Studying odor awareness might provide valuable insights into individuals’ interactions with olfactory environments that cannot be reproduced in laboratory settings (Nováková & Vojtušová Mrzílková, 2016). Odor awareness is also associated with individuals’ engagement in olfactory exploration and scent-related behaviors (Sorokowska et al., 2018). However, research on odor awareness, especially among children, remains scarce. Existing measures demonstrate good psychometric properties but rely heavily on advanced verbal, cognitive, and abstract reasoning skills, which limits their applicability in young children. To address this gap, we aimed to validate a new method for assessing odor awareness in children: the OAS-C (Odor Awareness Scale for Children). The proposed method consists of an open-ended task in which children spontaneously name odors encountered in everyday life. In our study, we invited 151 children aged 4–9 to complete the OAS-C alongside the Children’s Olfactory Behavior in Everyday Life questionnaire (COBEL) (Ferdenzi et al., 2008) to assess convergent validity. Olfactory performance was measured using the U-Sniff odor identification test. Food neophobia was included to examine divergent validity, and verbal fluency was assessed due to its potential influence on odor identification and task performance. Our results suggested that OAS-C is a valid method for measuring odor awareness in preschool children. OAS-C relies on verbal fluency, however, controlling for it, the correlation with COBEL remains significant and moderate. Children mostly listed plants and food-related items as fragrant objects. No gender differences were observed.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
Content Locked. Log into a registered attendee account to access this presentation.