The Effects of Olfactory Environmental Cues on Prospective Memory

Abstract

The sense of smell is uniquely tied to brain regions involved in memory. Previous research shows that introducing the scent of a household cleaner into the experimental room will elicit more cleaning behaviors and increase recall for cleaning-related words. However, these findings are limited to retrospective memory. Prospective memory is remembering to complete a task in the future and accounts for up to 80% of every day memory problems. Because of the consequences of prospective memory failures, it is vital to find ways to reduce these failures. While scent has been shown to modify behavior in a retrospective memory context, little is known about the effects of scent on prospective memory. The current study seeks to extend previous research on scent and memory into a prospective memory paradigm.