The present study aimed to investigate whether the perception of still scenes in a virtual environment in congruent versus incongruent condition can be influenced by odors. Ninety healthy participants were divided into three groups, including two experimental virtual reality (VR) environments: a rose garden, an orange basket, and a control condition. In each VR condition, participants were exposed to a rose odor, an orange odor, or no odor, resulting in congruent, incongruent, and control conditions. Participants were asked to describe (a) the content of the VR scene and rate its overall pleasantness and (b) the smell and to rate its intensity and pleasantness. For each condition, participants were tested twice. During the second test, participants provided ratings and descriptions of the content of the VR scenes without being exposed to odors or VR environments. Virtual scenarios tended to be remembered as more pleasant when presented with congruent odors. Furthermore, participants used more descriptors in congruent scenarios than in incongruent scenarios. Eventually, rose odor appeared to be remembered as more pleasant when presented within congruent scenarios. These findings show that olfactory stimuli in congruent versus incongruent conditions can possibly modulate the perception of the pleasantness of visual scenes but not the memorization.

本研究旨在调查在一致与不一致条件下虚拟环境中静止场景的感知是否会受到气味的影响。90 名健康参与者被分为三组，包括两个实验虚拟现实 (VR) 环境：玫瑰园、橙色篮子和对照组。在每种 VR 条件下，参与者都会接触玫瑰气味、橙子气味或无气味，从而产生一致、不一致和对照条件。参与者被要求描述 (a) VR 场景的内容并评价其整体愉悦度，以及 (b) 气味并评价其强度和愉悦度。对于每种情况，参与者都接受了两次测试。在第二次测试中，参与者在没有接触气味或VR环境的情况下对VR场景的内容进行评分和描述。当虚拟场景与一致的气味一起出现时，人们往往会觉得更愉快。此外，参与者在一致场景中使用的描述符比在不一致场景中使用的描述符更多。最终，当玫瑰气味出现在一致的场景中时，人们似乎会觉得它更令人愉悦。这些发现表明，一致与不一致条件下的嗅觉刺激可能会调节视觉场景的愉悦感，但不会调节记忆。