Psychophysical Scales of the Odor Intensity of Amyl Acetate

The paper presents psychophysical scales of amyl acetate in benzyl benzoate sniffed from cotton. Four scales obtained by direct scaling procedures, ratio estimation and magnitude estimation, yield functions of the form R = kS n , with n ranging from 0.39 to 0.57. These data support earlier findings that the intensity of smell is a negatively accelerated function of stimulus intensity. In addition, comparison of magnitude and category scales indicate that the subjective intensity of smell is a prothetic continuum. Finally, further analysis of subjective ratios as a function of stimulus ratios again shows that ( a ) the magnitude scale is a ratio scale and ( b ) the function obtained conforms to the power law.