It is well known that the Stroop effect is subject to influence by same-mod
ality primes, but the possibility of cross-modal priming effects is unclear
. Smell is a fundamental sensory system that is assumed to have potent cros
s-modality priming effects. We might expect the presence of a specific odor
to interfere with performance on Stroop cards containing odor-congruent wo
rds. Forty participants, half of whom were primed with an unpleasant odor a
nd half with a pleasant odor, were examined with modified Stroop cards cont
aining pleasant and unpleasant descriptive words. A significant Stroop card
by odor group interaction was found, indicating that the presence of an od
or interferes with the performance on an odor-congruent Stroop card. These
findings demonstrate cross-modality priming between olfaction and vision.