Visual and olfactory effects of flowers and floral fragrance on human psychophysiological, emotional and cognitive responses

Psychophysiological, emotional and cognitive responses of thirty-two male and thirty-four female university students were collected to comprehensively determine visual and olfactory effects of flowers and floral fragrance.; Multiple psychophysiological measurements were recorded of alpha and beta brainwave activities (EEG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and skin temperature by a biomonitoring instrumentation system. A self-rated Zuckerman Inventory of Personal Reactions (ZIPERS) was used for emotional evaluation. Cognitive performance was measured by a mental arithmetic task. An experimental session consisted of 5-minute pre-task periods (PR), a 1-minute mental arithmetic task period (T) and 7-minute post-task periods (PO). In four consecutive experimental sessions, each participant was exposed to four treatments (including cut flower arrangement, lavender fragrance, combination of cut flower arrangement plus lavender fragrance, and control) randomly assigned using a four period crossover experimental design. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run by Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS) on the data collected in the experiments.; For male participants, olfactory effects of the lavender fragrance treatment significantly increased EDA suggesting less relaxation and more physical arousal. For female participants, visual effects of the cut flower arrangement treatment and especially olfactory effects of the lavender fragrance treatment significantly decreased EDA suggesting more relaxation and less physical arousal.; For male participants, visual effects of the cut flower arrangement treatment significantly lowered fear arousal, and visual and olfactory effects of the cut flower arrangement plus lavender fragrance treatment significantly increased attentive coping. For female participants, olfactory effects of the lavender fragrance treatment significantly lowered sadness and anger/aggression.; For male participants, visual effects of the cut flower arrangement treatment improved cognitive performance in calculating accuracy. For female participants, visual effects of the cut flower arrangement treatment significantly improved cognitive performance in calculating speed, and olfactory effects of lavender fragrance treatment enhanced cognitive performance with much higher calculating speed and accuracy.