Sidewalks Used In Psychology Experiment
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Cedar: It was kitty litter that first gave Brady Wormell the idea of putting perfume in cement. Wormell, who owns Wormell Ready Mix of Zoar, IA, began experimenting three years ago with incorporating scents into different types of mortar and concrete mixes. After many months and cubic yards of perfuming masonry, Wormell succeeded in producing a slab that could retain aromatic oils in the concrete matrix over a period of years and release a whiff of scent whenever anyone walked on it. Overjoyed, he told a friend.
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The Institute of Behavioral Psychology on the campus of Georg von Podebrad College. Will the scented concrete brighten pedestrian lives?
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The friend, meanwhile, turned out to be Dr. Rolf Gunbjörn, a research scientist with the Georg von Podebrad College Institute of Behavioral Psychology. Dr. Gunbjörn had been working on an project to study the long term effects of different aromas on a randomly sampled population. Realizing the scented cement provided the perfect vehicle for his research, Dr. Gunbjörn devised an experiment in which sidewalks composed of Wormell's scented concrete would be placed in discreet locations around the campus as part of GvP's annual maintenance and repair. When Wormell agreed to provide the special cement free of charge, the GvP research board granted Dr. Gunbjörn permission to go ahead with his research.
"We're using a whole series of aromatic sidewalks throughout the campus to see what they do to people a the onset and how affects them over long run." says Dr. Gunbjörn. "For example, will they change the way they walk to class or to their office because they happen to like or dislike a particular smell? We plan to use video cameras to monitor certain areas and watch how people act to the aromas; some will be asked to fill out surveys. Other will be asked to participate in further research. On the whole it promises to be a unique and revealing study."
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