{"id":75,"date":"2013-04-03T21:09:56","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T01:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/?p=75"},"modified":"2017-09-06T13:26:14","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T17:26:14","slug":"sense-triggered-memory-why-smelling-your-ex-boyfriends-old-sweatshirt-makes-you-want-to-cry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/2013\/04\/03\/sense-triggered-memory-why-smelling-your-ex-boyfriends-old-sweatshirt-makes-you-want-to-cry\/","title":{"rendered":"Sense-triggered memory: why smelling your ex-boyfriend’s old sweatshirt makes you want to cry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clothes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you ever smelled a certain cologne and felt your heart drop because it was the one your ex-boyfriend wore? Or have you caught a whiff of your mom\u2019s apple pie and affectionately remembered devouring a slice with your brother? Maybe you\u2019ve smelled a certain brand of cigar and remembered how happy you were bouncing on your grandfather\u2019s knee as a child. Certain sensory cues can be very powerful triggers for emotional memories. While many people think of sounds such as music as being strong memory cues, smells actually produce the most emotional and evocative memories.<\/p>\n

A recent study by Rachel S. Herz of Brown University analyzed memories triggered by different sensory cues: just reading the word for the item, smelling the item, hearing the item, or seeing the item. First, participants were asked to think of a personal memory associated with a certain item- popcorn, fresh-cut-grass, or campfire. Participants were only prompted by the word of the item, not the physical item itself.\u00a0 Participants provided a brief verbal description of the memory, and were also asked to rate it on 4 scales: how emotional it was, how vivid it was, how evocative it was (how much they were brought back to that place and time), and how specific it was.<\/p>\n

Immediately after, participants were presented with the same item in its various sensory forms (visual, olfactory, and auditory). The visual forms were silent videos of a bowl of popcorn, a lawnmower cutting grass, or a bright campfire at night. The olfactory forms were oil-based beads that gave off realistic, authentic smells of the items. The auditory forms were sound clips of popcorn popping, a lawn mower starting and cutting grass, or a slow crackling fire. The participants were again asked for a description of the memory after each cue, and rated it on the same 4 scales. Therefore, each participant evaluated each memory four times, first recalled verbally, and then recalled visually, olfactorily, and auditorily. The verbal cue was always presented first, but the order of the three sensory cues varied to be sure that the order was not affecting recollection- for example, the memories did not get more or less emotional as they were re-told and evaluated.<\/p>\n

The results indicated that memories were most emotional when the participants smelled the cue.\u00a0 Participants also felt most brought back to the event by the smell as opposed to the other cues. However, the type of cue did not influence how vivid or specific the memory was.<\/p>\n

Additional tests based on age differences found some interesting results. The oldest age group (50\u201379 years) had the most emotional and vivid memories elicited by fresh-cut-grass, and the youngest age group (7\u201318 years) had the most vivid memories elicited by campfire. Herz explains that these differences are probably due to the different experiences that these age groups had with fresh-cut-grass and campfires. Older participants had stronger memories associated with cutting grass than younger age groups because they have had more experience with it. Also, 40\u201360 years ago the likelihood of an American family having a yard was greater, and the family ritual of cutting grass was more prevalent. The youngest age group\u2019s strong reactions to campfire were likely due to recent experiences at summer camp.<\/p>\n

Geographic location also affected memory. Participants from the city had the most vivid memories of popcorn, and people from rural\/country areas had the most vivid memories of fresh-cut grass. Again, this is probably due to having more experience with popcorn or fresh-cut grass based on location.<\/p>\n

To summarize, the study showed that memories elicited by smells were more emotional and evocative than memories cued by the visual, verbal, or auditory version of the smell. So the next time you smell your roommate\u2019s sweaty soccer cleats and remember the thrill you felt when you scored a game winning-goal, maybe instead of wrinkling your nose, you will stop to appreciate the power of smells.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Herz, Rachel S. (2004) A naturalistic analysis of autobiographical memories triggered by olfactory visual and auditory stimuli. Chemical Senses<\/i>,\u00a029,<\/i>\u00a0217\u2013224.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever smelled a certain cologne and felt your heart drop because it was the one your ex-boyfriend wore? Or have you caught a whiff of your mom\u2019s apple pie and affectionately remembered devouring a slice with your brother? Maybe you\u2019ve smelled a certain brand of cigar and remembered how happy you were bouncing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3959,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40864,80215],"tags":[117417,130387],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3809,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/3809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/cogblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}