Presentation Details
| Remembering Odors in Order Theresa L.White1, William Fredborg2, Caitlin M.Cunningham1, Jonas K.Olofsson2, . 1Le Moyne College, SYRACUSE, NY, USA.2Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden |
Abstract
How do people remember a series of odorants? Although a good deal is known about the way that human working memory (WM) handles verbal, visual and spatial stimuli when presented in a series, very little is known about how olfactory stimuli may engage WM capacities. The present study asked whether olfactory working memory (OWM) performs similarly to well-established WM findings in other stimulus domains in terms of (1) serial position (primacy and recency), (2) transposition errors and (3) grouping effects. The experiment involved odor stimulation using an olfactometer, instructions and sniff-cues presented on a computer screen, and button-press responses on a keyboard. Participants smelled four odorants in a sequence, followed by a probe odorant. Participants responded to the probe by determining the serial position in which it had been presented. Each person experienced some lists that were temporally uniform, as well as those that had a longer pause between the second and third odorant, allowing the possibility of a grouping effect. We found a recency effect, but no primacy effect in serial position, and transposition errors such that serial positions adjacent to the target were over-represented. No effect of temporal grouping was observed, either due to manipulation being insufficient or the uniqueness of olfactory memory. These results indicate that OWM shares similarities with verbal, visual, and spatial WM, but more research is needed before domain-general theoretical frameworks for human WM can be established.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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