The Olfactory and Gustatory Senses
Welcome back,
How is it going? Great stuff, isn’t it?
This time we’re going to look at the final 2 of our 5 sensory filters: Olfactory (smell) and Gustatory (taste).
These are not included when assessing what your preferred representational thinking, learning and communication systems are.
That’s not to say they are not important, absolutely not. They are extremely important.
Why do real estate agents suggest that there is baking in the oven when you want to sell your house, or fresh coffee brewing, or oil burners wafting fragrances into the air, or bowls of sweets and chocolates distributed in the various rooms?
It’s to tantalize your olfactory glands, your smell receptors AND (in the case of food and drink) your gustatory receptors – your taste buds.
Have you ever heard the following, as s/he sniffs the air while walking out of the office building, the person says:
“I’m so hungry. (sniff, sniff, sniff) I can the taste the pizza my wife/husband is cooking for dinner (sniff, sniff, sniff).”
Or, have you ever said or heard someone say something to this effect: “Oh, that smell makes me so hungry”; “That smell reminds me of…………”.
Or when you were having a particular meal with someone you said: “This food reminds me of……………” And away you two go chatting about that time.
Do certain smells remind you of particular places? Or of particular events? Or of particular people?
Whenever I go on a longish holiday, I always buy a bottle of perfume at duty free and wear it on that holiday.
When I’m back home, I can relive the feeling of that holiday with all the accompanying memories attached to those feelings as I wear that perfume.
And what happens then?
If it’s a trip I went on with my daughter, we reminisce nostalgically on whatever aspects of the trip come to mind. We’ve done a lot of trips around the world together.
Or, If I’m having coffee with a friend, it starts up another conversation about our individual experiences, which usually invites the other senses being incorporated.
This is great for rapport building as you’ll see later when we deal with Rapport.
These two, Olfactory and Gustatory, are sometimes referred to as sub-divisions of Kinesthetic experience.
The Olfactory sensory filter is also the quickest to activate. It goes directly to the brain.
If someone has fainted, they are immediately given something to smell to bring them back to consciousness.
Why do you think ladies and gentlemen are particular when choosing a fragrance? They want it to be immediately effective.
I’m sure it’s happened to you, someone passes you and you get a whiff of their perfume or after shave, and your nose instantly activates a reaction of delight or disgust. Hasn’t it?
Zap, straight to the core of the other person. Zap, they are smitten. J Or not!
Finally, in summary, there are 3 major preferences people employ when they think, learn and communicate.
Note, these are preferences only.
People may have an overall preference for one, but that’s not to say that they won’t make use of others in different circumstances.
Also, given the life experiences, diversity of careers, exposure to varying educative processes, learnings and methods of learning, a person can be adept in incorporating all five in their thinking, learning and communicating.
For example, my VAK scores are almost identical as is another component which we haven’t touched on yet as it’s not a ‘sense’ - Auditory Digital (Ad).
Breaking it down further, when I learn a language or engage in any rote learning, although I’m visual, I have to say the vocabularies and grammatical structures out loud (A), I have to write them (K and V), some things I have to draw (K), others I make lists (Ad).
If it’s foods, I make use of O & G.
In other words, I use the lot.
Yet, my overall preference, my primary preference is still Visual.
There are some wonderful techniques to gauge which one a person has a preference for and which one/s they use.
I never knew that there are so much to learn about taste and smell. Now I have found the secret to both of these.
Thanks for sharing such an interesting thing with us
You’re welcome Raymond.
Life is never the same once we really understand what makes us tick.
Cheers,
Gloria
I guess I hardly use these two senses when communicating - ie the O & G part of it, which completes the VAKOG. Though I must confess, I am more of a Ad type - Auditory digital and I talk to myself a lot.
Yes, Shafir, we each do have a preferred representational sense which we utilize in our thinking, learning and communicating.
However, we can lessen the gap between each of the VAKOG by being aware of the existence of each, and thus enriching our daily experiences and those of the people we interact with.
It’s fun to start incorporating them.
Cheers,
Gloria