Question

1. Provide a general definition for the concept of sensory adaptation. If you were a marketing manager for an air freshener company, why should you be concerned about sensory adaptation? At least two different household products are available in the marketplace that makes use of the phenomenon of sensory adaptation: Febreze’s NOTICEables. and Glade’s Lasting Impressions Air Freshener. Both products are air fresheners that use warmed oil to scent the air with fragrances. Explain, from a psychological standpoint, how this product works to support the claims made by the company. Be sure to include at least two features of human sensation or perception in your response.

Answer 1

• Sensory adaptation is defined as the diminished sensitivity to a stimulus as a consequence of constant exposure to that stimulus. Brain cells begin to fire when they pick up on a new stimulus in your environment as signaled by your sensory organs (your ears, eyes, nose, etc.).
• The constant loud sound of a running air conditioner, for instance, seems irritating when it is first turned on. However, within an hour, you'll most likely have forgotten all about that sound and no longer notice it. So, if that stimulus remains unchanged in the environment, then the brain cells begin to fire significantly less in response to that stimulus, and the result is a lack of attention to that particular stimulus.
• Everyone’s place has a smell. Some homes smell like fancy perfume or Anthropologie candles; others smell like cats. Currently, there’s a Febreze ad campaign that seizes on this idea , that although you’ve gotten used to the odors in your own home, your guests think your place stinks like a high school boys’ locker room or an oversize, smelly sneaker.
• First, let’s talk about what’s happening inside your nose and brain when you “get used to” environmental smells. At home, say you have a new cinnamon-scented air freshener. When you first start to use it, the odorant molecules waft through your nose and hit your odor receptors, which then send signals to your olfactory bulb in the brain’s limbic system, which is associated with emotion and behavior. There, your brain identifies the odor and decides what to do about it.
• But very quickly after just about two breaths, the receptors in your nose sort of switch off.That’s because your brain has perceived the scent to be nonthreatening, which means there’s little need to pay close attention to it.
• Scientists aren’t exactly sure why our noses adapt to smells, but it seems to be because it helps us to very quickly detect even the subtlest change in the scent of our environment. For our ancestors, this function might’ve helped them notice a change in smell in some animal they’d killed, signifying that the corpse was rotting and not safe to eat.
• Sensory adaptation is a problem that creates disinterest in the minds of consumers that are exposed to the same advertisement for a long time. Such consumers avoid watching the particular advertisements as it stops giving sensory input to them.
• The key to snapping consumers out of this dull haze is to offer something novel that they haven’t experienced before.The logic behind that being that when someone encounters something new, particularly when they aren’t expecting it, that object is immediately brought to the forefront of their attention and is also likely to be solidified in their memory.
• There are ways to overcome nose blindness that we experience. One is to exercise vigorously. This increases blood flow and helps the nose pick up on familiar smells once again. Another way is to worry more about smells. This fear regarding a smell will interfere with the sensory adaptation of smell.
• Due to time limit,any remaining questions can be asked as another question,they will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation