Olfactory associative memory: How and when odors bind to events

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Christina Bermeitinger; Ryan Hackländer, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 450542858

Odors have long been thought to be particularly powerful cues of memory in the public imagination. However, when odor associative memory has been investigated in the laboratory the pattern of results has been somewhat surprising and much more interesting. Namely, when using different methods of investigation, research has indicated that odors are in some cases very good cues of memory and in some cases are quite poor cues of memory. Additionally, a wide range of other results related to olfaction and memory have been found, including that odor related memories are particularly emotional and old, and that it is difficult to associate new memories with an odor if the odor has already previously been associated with an event.In the current project, we put forward a model which aims to account for the various results reported in the literature and explain when odors will become associated to events in memory. The model argues that odor association at encoding is dependent on the degree to which the odor itself is the focus of attention, whether the same odor has previously been associated with a similar event, and to what degree the odor can inform a behavioral response during the event. Odors are processed as being particularly emotional. When the odor is the focus of attention, then it is clear to the system that the emotion felt is due to the presence of the odor. However, when the odor is outside the focus of attention, the entire event is processed as more emotional. This increases the chance of the odor being associated with the event in memory. The chances of this association being stored are increased when the association to the odor is novel and behaviorally relevant. During retrieval, the effectiveness of the odor as a cue of memory depends on the degree to which the odor is perceived as being similar enough to that present during encoding and whether the odor is the focus of attention. When the odor is perceived as similar to that present during encoding, it will be an effective cue of memory for the event. If the odor is inside the focus of attention, this should more often lead to voluntary retrieval of an event, whereas odors outside the focus of attention should lead to involuntary retrieval of the event. Our model not only accounts for previous findings, but makes novel predictions. The purpose of the current project is to test our model and determine its feasibility as an explanation of when, and to what degree, odors associate with events in memory and/or retrieve specific memories.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants