Cross-modal preference acquisition: Evaluative conditioning of pictures by affective olfactory and auditory cues.

A cross-modal paradigm was chosen to test the hypothesis that affective olfactory and auditory cues paired with neutral visual stimuli bearing no resemblance or logical connection to the affective cues can evoke preference shifts in those stimuli. Neutral visual stimuli of abstract paintings were presented simultaneously to 50 female college students with liked and disliked odors and sounds. Neutral-neutral pairings served as controls. The results confirm previous findings that the affective evaluation of previously neutral stimuli shifts in the direction of contingently presented affective auditory stimuli. In addition, this research shows the presence of conditioning with affective odors having no logical connection with the pictures.