Conditioning of a stress management training to a distinctive scent

Various studies have shown that scents can be conditioned to pleasant and unpleasant environmental cues, as scents and the association with specific memories are easily formed. Research has also shown that a brief stress management training can have significant positive effects on both psychological and physiological stress responses after exposure to acute stress. In the current study, we aim to investigate whether the administration of a distinctive scent after conditioning of the scent to a stress management training can result in positive psychological and physiological stress response effects after acute stress in a population of healthy adults.

The goal of the current study is to examine whether a neutral scent can be conditioned to a stress management training, by examining whether administration of the scent alone can evoke conditioned effects on psychological and physiological stress responses after exposure to acute stress. Primary research question is whether the experimental group will show a lowered stress response after acute stress compared to two combined control groups, consisting of the no-treatment control group and the treatment control group.

The study consists of two test sessions on two consecutive days at a similar time of day.

A randomized controlled between-subjects design will be applied, consisting of two phases (acquisition phase and test phase), which will take place on two consecutive days at a similar time of the day. Participants are randomly allocated to one of three groups:

Acquisition phase:

Group 1 (no-treatment control group) will perform a neutral filler task. Group 2 (treatment control group) and 3 (treatment conditioned group) will undergo a stress management training. Before and after the filler task or stress management training, all participants will be exposed to the same distinctive scent for one minute.

Test phase:

Participants in group 1 and 3 will be exposed to the same distinctive
scent as in the acquisition phase. Participants in group 2 will not receive the scent and testing will be done in a different lab in order to avoid conditioning effects. After baseline measures and the scent exposure (in group 1 and 3), a psychosocial stress task will be applied (the Trier Social Stress Test).