Proustian Effect - Magical Smell Memory
Time:2023-06-10
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Scientists have discovered that smell memory has unique advantages in long-term preservation.
Originally, it was thought that smell was a kind of "poor memory information". However, as the research progressed, scientists discovered that odor memory has unique advantages in long-term preservation. Although the accuracy rate of immediate olfactory memory is only about 70%, its decay rate is close to 0.
That is to say, the scents in memory are almost never lost, but vividly preserved in our minds.
In addition, smells also have a distinctive ability to arouse autobiographical memories. The so-called autobiographical memory (autobiographical memory, AM) refers to the spontaneous or involuntary memory related to personal experience. Related studies have shown that autobiographical memories evoked by smells are older and carry more emotional intensity.
Just as the smell of tea-soaked pastries in Proust‘s works evokes the author‘s childhood memories, so this phenomenon is widely known as "the Proust effect".
Proust‘s description of the experience
Proust‘s description of the experience
Proust effect experiment
Experiment 1. Timing of Odor Memory
Scientists at Stockholm University conducted an experiment. The characteristic of "smell memory is longer" in Proust effect is verified.
They selected 20 objects, including tobacco, tar, and beer, each of which could be presented as a word, picture, or smell. They showed 93 older adults a cue containing one of these three presentation types. They were asked to relate these given cues to autobiographical events and to describe the emotions they felt when they recalled them.
The results showed that autobiographical memories triggered by olfactory information were older than those associated with verbal and visual information. Most odor-cued memories are located in the first decade of life, that is, childhood. Whereas memories associated with verbal and visual cues peak in early adulthood (11-20 years).
Distribution of odor-cued autobiographical memory across the lifespan
Distribution of text-cued autobiographical memories across the lifespan
Distribution of image-suggested autobiographical memories across the lifespan
Distribution of text-cued autobiographical memories across the lifespan
Distribution of image-suggested autobiographical memories across the lifespan
Experiment 2. Strength of odor memory
Brown University psychologist Rachel Herz conducted another experiment that examined another aspect of the Proust effect. This experiment showed that smell-evoked memories carry a stronger emotional tinge and are associated with a strong sense of time travel.
In this experiment, the cues used to trigger recall were grass, campfire and popcorn. Seventy healthy subjects were asked to rate the memories for emotionality, aftertaste, vividness and uniqueness.
First, the experimenters showed the subjects the text labels of the three cues. Participants were asked to bring up relevant autobiographical memories and rate those memories.
Afterwards, they can experience sensory modalities (smell, sight, hearing) of the item. Thinking back on the same memory again re-evaluates the memory experience.
Experimental results show that when a memory is presented in olfactory form, it is more emotional than in verbal, visual or auditory form. When the cues come in the form of smells, they feel more immersive.
Means of the Memory Rating Scale by Prompt Form
Means of the Memory Rating Scale by Prompt Form
There is such a sentence in Proust‘s "In Search of Lost Time", "When the years pass and everything disappears, only the smell floating in the air is still lingering, making the past vivid."
Smell is the time machine, and those flavors that remain in memory are the romance that life gives us.
SCENTSEA is a company specializing in the development, production, and marketing of scent diffuser machines. We hope to use our expertise to create a unique scent logo for your brand, so that your end customers can keep their scent memories for a long time.
SCENTSEA is a company specializing in the development, production, and marketing of scent diffuser machines. We hope to use our expertise to create a unique scent logo for your brand, so that your end customers can keep their scent memories for a long time.
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