So why is there a difference you may ask? Here's our reasons!

Comparing and contrasting both days....

Between the three members, scents observed in Day 1 were apparently less than those in Day 2. This is because in Day 1, no conscious effort is made to record the scents and odours encountered. Therefore, the sense of smell in Day 1 is not as acute and sensitive. Furthermore, we were to recall the scents and odours and we would therefore, tend to only remember scents that are stronger and familiar to us.

In Day 2 where a conscious effort is made to record the scents, more observations were made. This could be attributed to the fact that we were told to consciously record the scents and odours around us. Thus, we were able to pick up scents more readily.

We also observed that for both days, more pleasant smells were noted than unpleasant smells. This could be due to the fact that pleasant smells stir up more pleasurable, memories rather of unpleasant smells. Scents that members found neutral tend to be scents that we are accustomed to and do not really evoke any sort of emotions or feelings within us.

However, the difference in the number of observations between group members tells us that smell sensitivity also varies between individuals.

Besides this, the differences in the number of observations between Day 1 and 2 tells us that most of us pay less attention to the smells around us because we rely mainly upon our sense of sight and hearing to navigate ourselves in our environment. As such, we would only notice them when they are particularly pleasant or unpleasant, and enough to override our already visually and audibly-laden environment.

This exercise in comparing and contrast has led us to realize there are actually a vast number of smells that surround us every day, just that we fail to take notice of them unless special attention has been given. Smells that are often ignored tend to be those which we consider “neutral”. These are also likely to be smells which we consider familiar; hence we tend to take them for granted without much notice.