13 - Testing Odor Memory: Incidental versus Intentional Learning, Implicit versus Explicit Memory

Summary

Introduction

How good is human memory for odors? Tests of memory involve two phases: an exposure or learning phase and a testing phase, separated by a retention period. During the exposure phase, stimuli are presented, and, depending on the instructions and experimental conditions, the odors can be memorized incidentally or intentionally. During the testing phase, the same odor stimuli are presented again, generally accompanied by new stimuli, and memory can be tested explicitly or implicitly (i.e., intentional retrieval by the subject may or may not be involved). Compared with other kinds of memory, such as verbal memory, pictorial memory, and face memory, there have been very few studies of odor memory. Moreover, most of those few studies investigated consciously learned and consciously recollected memories of odors. But in everyday life, odors are generally learned incidentally. Rarely does anyone decide “I should memorize this odor” (Baeyens et al., 1996; Haller et al., 1999, Sulmont, 2000). In other words, whereas in everyday life odor learning is nonintentional and its recollection is usually implicit, in laboratory studies odor memory has been evaluated using intentional learning and explicit recollection. That raises the question of the ecological validity of traditional laboratory experiments to test odor memory. Indeed, following Neisser (1976), we must wonder if that type of approach has not been ignoring some of the main features of odor memory as they occur in ordinary life.

To examine the effects of experimental paradigms on memory performance for odors is the main goal of this chapter.