Characteristics of Odor-evoked memories

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to provide a descriptive picture of odor evoked memories and define the most common odors that evoked memories. Moreover it is aimed compare characterictics of memories evoked by verbal, visual and olfactory cues. Also, the metacognitive judgments in odor evoked memories are investigated and they are compared with verbally and visually cued memories. To fulfill these purposes two experiments were conducted in this study. In study one participants were asked if they had a memory that is evoked by an odor and also asked to indicate which odor evokes memories. In the second experiment the differences between verbal, visual and odor cued memories were investigated by a well established and frequently used scale, Rubin’s Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire. Participants werer randomly assigned to one cue type group and they were presented seven cue items. The results showed that it was common to have an odor evoked memory and perfume was found to be most common odor that evokes memory. Also there was great inter individual variability with regard to odors that evoke memories. The characteristics of memories were found to be similar for verbal, visual and olfactory cues. Like other measures included in AMQ, emotionality, vividness, feeling of brought back, age at event and novelty of memories did not show any significant difference. However, there was a difference in metacognitive judgments and each cue type had different contributing variable for each judgments.