Presentation Details
| AChemS Undergrad Finalist: Testing a relationship between odor mixture perception and working memory capacity Elijah Wakefield1, Chong Zhao2, 3, Leslie M.Kay1, 2, 3, . 1The College, Chicago, IL, USA.2Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA.3Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA |
Abstract
Previous research shows that humans cannot reliably identify more than three or four odorants in multicomponent mixtures. It is claimed that this upper limit reflects an inherent limitation in olfactory perception. An alternative explanation incorporates working memory capacity. Recall of odorants’ learned names, which constitutes “identification,” places demands on verbal working memory in addition to odor knowledge. Therefore, the presumed olfactory identification limit may be influenced by working memory capacity, as examination of a complex mixture occurs over the space of a few sniffs, mirroring working memory time spans. In the present study we explore the possibility that working memory capacity may be partly responsible for the observed odor component identification limit. We replicate previous research with a new set of odorants–a set of “good blenders” whose mixtures yield a homogenous percept, making identification of individual odorants presumably more difficult. We add a visual working memory test to test the hypothesis that mixture component identification is correlated with working memory capacity. The first wave of data collection indicates a possible correlation between working memory capacity and component identification in complex mixtures, encouraging support for our hypothesis. Participants are unable to reliably identify beyond three or four odorants in a mixture, and odor identification performance scales positively with visual working memory scores (r = 0.68, but non-significant with 5 subjects). The second wave of data collection is underway (10 additional subjects; planned total is 40 subjects).
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