
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 20, 1991                   TAG: 9102200171
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

IF JOB STINKS, IT'S TIME TO SMELL THE MUGUET

Picture yourself in your most tiring work setting - the end of a long day of entering data into a computer, listening to speeches, taking an important test. You feel yourself losing concentration. What do you need? A break? A cup of coffee? A cold beer? Guess again.

A whiff of peppermint, or a floral fragrance called "Muguet" could be just the pick-me-up you need.

That was the finding of a study by two University of Cincinnati psychologists, William Dember and Joel Warm, released Tuesday.

Participants were isolated in a booth to take a tough 40-minute computerized test as puffs of pure, filtered air, peppermint or Muguet were administered to them through a mask every five minutes.

The test required participants to hit a button every time a certain pattern of lines, very similar to another pattern, appeared. The test was concocted to require close vigilance.

"Typically subjects feel pretty rotten after the test," Dember said. "Their mood is crummy."

The crummy mood of the group that got the fragrances wafted under their noses did not change, he said, but their work performance did.

The group smelling peppermint or flowers had 20 percent higher accuracy during the early part of the test period than the group getting charcoal-filtered room air. Performance dropped for all groups over the 40 minutes, but the fragrance smellers consistently outperformed the plain air group.

Dember said other studies would be done to see whether foul-smelling odors sharpen concentration as well as pleasant ones.

The studies were sponsored by the Fragrance Research Fund, an industry group. The researchers said employers ought to wait for follow-up studies before buying supplies of peppermint and room air fresheners.

by CNB