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According to the incentive salience hypothesis framework (Berridge, 2007, 2012; Berridge & Robinson, 1998, 2003; Berridge, Robinson, & Aldridge, 2009), wanting and liking can be dissociated, suggesting that two products having similar liking levels could trigger different wanting behaviors in consumers. Defined as a motivational state that promotes approach toward and consumption of rewarding stimuli, wanting can be measured through the Pavlovian instrumental transfer (PIT) procedure. Having emerged from animal models, the PIT procedure aims to measure the effort exerted by an organism (consumer) to obtain a particular reward (product). By adapting and optimizing existing human PIT procedures, we developed LikeWant, an innovative behavioral method that measures consumers’ motivation to pursue flavors and fragrances as rewards. Two studies were conducted to test the sensitivity of the LikeWant procedure. In the first experiment, we investigated the sensitivity of the LikeWant procedure to measure wanting for a pleasant odor with odorless air as a neutral control. In the second experiment, we assessed the ability of the LikeWant procedure to simultaneously measure wanting for two competing fine fragrances. The results showed that the LikeWant procedure is able to (1) measure wanting for a pleasant odor with odorless air as a neutral control condition and (2) discriminate between two fine fragrances on the basis of their rewarding properties, potentially enabling the use of the procedure in consumer studies.

Would you get close to a stinky perfume bottle or to a speaker producing noise? In this paper, we present two procedures that allowed us to assess the ability of auditory and olfactory cues to elicit automatic approach/avoidance reactions toward their sources. The procedures resulted from an adaptation of the Visual Approach-Avoidance by the Self Task (VAAST; Rougier et al., 2018), a task having the peculiarity of simulating approach/avoidance reactions by using visual feedback coming from whole-body movements. In the auditory VAAST (Experiment 1), participants were instructed to move forward or backward from a speaker that produced spoken words differentiated by their level of distortion and thus, by their hedonic value. In the olfactory VAAST (Experiment 2), participants were asked to move forward or backward from a perfume bottle that delivered pleasant and unpleasant odors. We expected, consistent with the approach/avoidance compatibility effect, shorter latencies for approaching positive stimuli and avoiding negative stimuli. In both experiments, we found an effect of the quality of the emotional stimulus on participants’ forward actions, with undistorted words and pleasant odors inducing faster forward movements compared with that for distorted words and unpleasant odors. Notably, our results further suggest that the VAAST can successfully be used with implicit instructions, i.e. without requiring participants to explicitly process the valence of the emotional stimulus (in Experiment 1) or even the emotional stimulus itself (Experiment 2). The sensitivity of our procedures is analyzed and its potential in cross-modal and (contextualized) consumer research discussed.

Relaxing and energizing feelings evoked by odors can modulate behavior, mood and physiological states. The extent to which automatic associations exist between feelings and odors is unclear. To investigate this question, we used a modified version of the Implicit Association Test. In this task, participants had to make speeded discrimination responses between stimuli and words related to energizing vs. relaxing feelings. These stimuli were either visual stimuli (i.e., vanilla vs. mint labels in Experiment 1) or olfactory (vanillin vs. menthol in Experiment 2, and two fine fragrances in Experiment 3). In compatible blocks, purportedly related items (e.g., vanillin and a label related to relaxing feelings) shared the same response key, while in incompatible blocks they did not (e.g., vanillin and a word related to energizing feelings). In the three experiments, the participants responded significantly faster in the compatible blocks than in the incompatible ones. The stronger the association between purportedly related items, the faster the participant responds in compatible blocks and the slower in incompatible blocks. Consequently, this differential speed of response supports the existence of associations between the stimuli that were considered to be compatible. This argues for the existence of automatic associations between relaxing/energizing feelings and odors, associations that can influence behavior.

With the development of distance learning programs, it is now usual for learners to complete collaborative tasks remotely. Even if audio and video channels are available, the subtle cues that allow to infer the partner's emotional states (e.g., interest, boredom, frustration) are seriously diminished. This study explores the impact of using a group emotion awareness tool on learners' interaction and perception. To achieve this goal, a dual eye-tracking approach was used in combination with an analysis of the number of positive and negative emotions shared during interaction. Results showed that participants mainly looked at and communicated positive emotions during collaboration. Interestingly, participants' attention was equally divided between their own- and their collaboration partner's emotional information. Finally, men spent more time looking at their partner's emotions compared to women. Results are discussed in terms of mutual modeling of partner's emotions during a remote collaborative task.

Cette recherche s'intéresse aux relations entre la cognition musicale, le fonctionnement cognitif et cérébral chez l'enfant tout-venant de 10.9 ± 0.8 ans. Les enfants ont été soumis à une tâche d'amorçage musical et à d'autres tâches comportementales mesurant divers aspects cognitifs. Lors de la tâche d'amorçage musical, nous avons enregistré l'EEG à haute densité de façon continue. Les résultats suggèrent que les enfants sont capables de détecter les violations syntaxiques subtiles dans des pièces musicales polyphoniques et complexes. De plus, la performance à la mémoire de chiffres en ordre inverse corrèle positivement avec l'indice de sensibilité à la violation syntaxique. D'après les résultats neurophysiologiques, les accords réguliers évoquent une positivité tardive centro-pariétale alors que les accords inattendus suscitent une négativité pariétale postérieure 400 ms après du début de l'accord déviant. Les générateurs neuronaux associés à ces composantes incluent l'insula, les régions temporales supérieures et moyennes.

Nous nous interrogeons sur la relation entre les caractéristiques émotionnelles des individus et la façon dont ils perçoivent la qualité des échanges avec leur partenaire au cours d'une tâche de conception collaborative à distance. Nous nous demandons également dans quelle mesure un outil de feedback émotionnel, permettant le partage des émotions pendant la collaboration, peut modifier la relation entre traits émotionnels et perception des interactions. Dans la condition sans feedback émotionnel, la perception des interactions est liée à la capacité des coéquipiers à extérioriser leurs émotions. Dans la condition où les coéquipiers reçoivent des informations sur les émotions de leur partenaire, la qualité perçue des interactions est liée à la contagion émotionnelle. Plus les coéquipiers ont tendance à synchroniser leurs émotions à celles de leur partenaire, et plus ils perçoivent les interactions comme convergentes et co-constructives.