Premium
Are Odors the Best Cues to Memory? A Cross‐Modal Comparison of Associative Memory Stimuli a
Author(s) -
HERZ RACHEL S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1998.tb10643.x
Subject(s) - psychology , recall , encoding specificity principle , stimulus (psychology) , encoding (memory) , odor , emotionality , cognitive psychology , associative property , communication , neuroscience , mathematics , pure mathematics
To test the claim that odors are the 'best' cues to memory, several cross‐modal experiments were conducted in which odors were compared with verbal, visual, tactile and musical stimuli as associated memory cues. Each experiment comprised two sessions (encoding and retrieval) separated by 48 hr. At the encoding session, a series of stimuli were incidentally associated to a set of emotionally arousing pictures. At the retrieval session, memory accu racy and emotionality were assessed. Across experiments, results revealed that odors were equivalent to other stimuli in their ability to elicit accurate recall, but that odor‐evoked memories were always more emotional. Notably, emotional responses did not vary as a function of stimulus type at encoding. These data indicate that emotional saliency, rather than accuracy, is responsible for the impression that odors are superior reminders, and that retrieval processes (cf. encoding processes) are responsible for the distinctive emotionality of odor‐evoked memories.