The Effect of Cue Format on Associative Memory

Unlike other senses, smell uniquely engages medial temporal brain regions involved in memory and emotion and is associated with enhanced visual reactivation. Anecdotally, all it took was the scent of a cookie to evoke warm memories associated with the writer Proust’s cherished aunt. Existing research indicates that odors cue emotionally vivid memories. However, there has been little assessment of the content accuracy in these recollections. The current study investigated the quality of recollections and the accuracy of these recollections to determine how effectively odors function as retrieval cues. Participants were presented with target images paired either with an odor or a verbal label. Two days later, they were tested with both studied cues and new ones. A priori t-tests were conducted to compare the recall of associated images between different cue types. The analyses included the overall recall rate, how emotionally vivid were the recollections, and the total number of details correctly and incorrectly remembered. Our results replicate previous findings that cue type does not significantly influence the success of retrieving target images. However, memories triggered by odors were not reported as more emotionally vivid or richer in sensory information when compared to label cues. The data may even suggest an advantage for label cues. This poster will describe the data trends observed and propose possible reasons for the unexpected results.