The aroma of coffee can help you crack the GMAT

Washington: The smell of coffee alone can help people perform better during the analytical portion of the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT) which is a test of computer adaptation required by many schools of Commerce, according to a study

led by Professor Adriana Madsharov of the Stevens Institute of Technology in the United States, not only highlights the hidden strength of the smell and the cognitive boost that She can provide on analytical tasks, but also hope that students will perform better.

"It's not just that the smell of coffee helped people to better perform their analytical tasks, which was already interesting, but they also thought that they would do better," he said. declared Mr. Madzharov

. Smelling a coffee-free coffee smell, it has an effect similar to that of coffee consumption, suggesting a placebo effect of the smell of coffee, according to the researchers.

In his work published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Madzharov and his team administered a GMAT algebra test of 10 questions in a computer lab to about 100 undergraduate business students, divided into two groups.

in the presence of an ambient fragrance similar to coffee, while a control group did the same test – but in an unscented room.

They found that the group in the room smelling of coffee got a significantly higher result.

The team designed a follow-up survey, conducted with over 200 new participants, questioning them about their beliefs about perfumes and their effects on human performance.

Participants believed that they would feel more alert and energetic in the presence of a coffee scent, against a scent of flower or no scent; The results suggest that performance expectations can be explained by the fact that the smell of coffee alone makes people more alert and energetic.

million. Madzharov is looking to find out if coffee similar smells can have a similar effect to placebo on other types of performance, such as verbal reasoning.

She also says that the discovery – that the smell of coffee acts as a placebo for the performance of analytical reasoning – has many practical applications, including "The olfaction is one of our most powerful senses: employers, architects, real estate developers, commercial space managers and others, can use subtle fragrances to shape the experience of employees or occupants with their surroundings, "said Mr. Madzharov .