An exploratory study on the influence of olfactory sillage on attention in a virtual reality environment

Diplôme Master An exploratory study on the influence of olfactory sillage on attention in a virtual reality environment eng 2025-08-25 author Nguyen Thi Thao Trang 920396 director Delplanque Sylvain 0000-0002-9025-4754 634389 Services communs du CISA (EMCO) director Zavlanou Christina 906429 Centre universitaire d'informatique (CUINF) <p>Odors can capture attention in everyday life — for example, when the trail of a perfume momentarily distracts us. This study investigated whether virtual reality (VR) can be used to examine attentional shifts related to olfactory stimuli. Participants were immersed in a virtual park and performed a reading task. While reading, an avatar walked past, and a pleasant odor was delivered via an olfactometer. Each participant experienced six olfactory conditions (five scents and one control), presented in randomized order. Eye movements were recorded using an eye tracker integrated into the VR headset and analyzed across three time intervals: before, during, and after the avatar’s passage. General observations of eye movements revealed greater variability in vertical (Y-axis) eye movements compared to horizontal (X-axis) and depth (Z-axis) movements, indicating that vertical gaze shifts were most pronounced. Results from the repeated-measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicated that, although no main effect of odor was found, there was a significant main effect of time period, suggesting that gaze behavior varied according to the avatar’s passage. These results highlight the relevance of VR as a tool for studying attention and olfactory influences.</p> Dewey 150 Maitrise universitaire en psychologie 108 Section de psychologie 71 false ca65797f-bab6-48b5-81be-da7014a12bba Master thesis Restricted NGUYEN_Thi_Thao_Trang_Memoire_Aout_.pdf 2221903 application/pdf b17950516f6e6a2e436e4ddda9b0ac73790c3d4ddb8781339c24e0d160b6ef89 restrictedAccess Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation / Section de psychologie

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An exploratory study on the influence of olfactory sillage on attention in a virtual reality environment				2025	24	1

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Nguyen, Thi Thao Trang

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