EFFECTS OF PLEASANT AMBIENT ODOR AND VERBAL PRIMING ON MEMORY RECALL

by Ret, Jennifer

Previous research suggests that odors emitted into a learning environment may facilitate recall, and that telling people they are being exposed to something that will help them remember may further enhance the effects of the odors. The study examined the effects of a pleasant olfactory cue and verbal priming statements on a memory recall task. Two hundred eleven undergraduates were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: odor/priming, odor/no-priming, no-odor/priming, or no-odor/no-priming. The odor participants were exposed to a pleasant scent during learning and recall. The priming participants were also alerted to the odor and told it had memory enhancing properties. Although no significant differences were detected between the odor and no-odor groups, women who were exposed to a priming statement recalled significantly more correct letter sequences than women who were not. This unobtrusive, highly cost-effective intervention should be investigated further with younger students to determine its potential in the classroom.