CONDITIONS OF ODOR THRESHOLD DETERMINATION 2.1 Requirements for the test area Olfactonetric measurement should be undertaken in a roan or area which is kept free frcm odors. There should be an atmosphere of ccmfort and relaxation in the test chamber, which will encourage panel members to concentrate on the testing task and not to be distracted by external sti muli. The test should be carried out at roan temperature and normal humi dity. 2.2 General conditions for test procedure Odor measurements must be carried out with the help of a team leader, who instructs the panelists and operates the measuring equipment. Ccmnu-nication between the team leader and the panel has to be kept to an abso lute minimum. Because of fatigue, the duration of a test series as well as the time of the whole session should be limited. Breaks of at least the same duration as the proceeding test period should be provided. Germany France Nether United lands Kingdcm Panel leader yes yes yes yes duration of 15-30 min 20 min 15 min test series duration of breaks 15-30 min 20 min ? 5 min 30 min 2 test 2 hours time of a test 300 tests/ series of period day 20 tests Table 1: General conditions 3. DETECTION METHODS 3.1 Presentation of odor stimulus 3.1.1 Method of limits The most used method for establishing an absolute threshold in en vironmental studies is the Method of Limits. In its classical form, the stimuli are presented in alternating ascending and descending series, starting at different points to avoid having the subject fall into a rou tine. During this procedure there is a chance that adaptation phenomena may develop. An effort to minimize these effects is for example to use only an ascending series of stimuli. The threshold value for each sepa rate test series is defined as a point in-between the last undetected and the first detected point in the stimulus continuum. A modification of the method of limits is the "up and down" method. A stimulus is presented: if the response is positive, the next lower sti mulus is presented, if it is negative, the next higher is presented and so on. The primary advantage is, that it automatically concentrates near the mean and a considerable number of observations can be saved.
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2010 ◽
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2017 ◽
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pp. 1411-1420
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2003 ◽
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2012 ◽
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