Hackländer Ryan P M, Bermeitinger Christina
Institut für Psychologie, Universität Hildesheim;
Institut für Psychologie, Universität Hildesheim.
J Vis Exp. 2018 Sep 18(139):58170. doi: 10.3791/58170.
Information is retrieved more effectively when the retrieval occurs in the same context as that in which the information was first encoded. This is termed context dependent memory (CDM). One category of cues that have been shown to effectively produce CDM effects are odors. However, it is unclear what the boundary conditions of these CDM effects are. In particular, given that olfaction has been called an implicit sense, it is possible that odors are only effective mnemonic cues when they are presented in the background. This assertion seems even more likely given that previous research has shown odors to be poor cues during paired associate memory tests, where odors are in the focus of attention as mnemonic cues for other information. In order to determine whether odors are only effective contextual mnemonic cues when presented outside the central focus of an observer, an olfactory CDM experiment was performed in which odorants were presented directly, rather than ambiently. Direct presentation was accomplished with the aid of an olfactometer. The olfactometer not only allows for direct presentation of odorants, but provides other methodological benefits, including the allowance of trial by trial manipulations of odorant presentations and, relatedly, time-specific releases of odorants. The presence of the same odor during both encoding and retrieval enhanced memory performance, regardless of whether the odor was presented ambiently or directly. This finding can serve as a basis for future olfactory CDM research which can utilize the benefits of direct presentation.
当信息检索发生在与信息最初编码相同的情境中时，信息检索会更有效。这被称为情境依赖记忆（CDM）。已被证明能有效产生CDM效应的一类线索是气味。然而，这些CDM效应的边界条件尚不清楚。特别是，鉴于嗅觉被称为一种隐性感觉，有可能气味只有在作为背景呈现时才是有效的记忆线索。考虑到先前的研究表明，在配对联想记忆测试中，当气味作为其他信息的记忆线索而成为注意力焦点时，气味是很差的线索，这种说法似乎更有可能成立。为了确定气味是否只有在呈现于观察者的核心注意力范围之外时才是有效的情境记忆线索，进行了一项嗅觉CDM实验，其中气味剂是直接呈现的，而不是以环境气味的形式呈现。直接呈现借助嗅觉仪完成。嗅觉仪不仅能直接呈现气味剂，还提供了其他方法学上的优势，包括允许逐次操纵气味剂的呈现，以及相关地，允许在特定时间释放气味剂。无论气味是作为环境气味还是直接呈现，在编码和检索过程中出现相同的气味都会提高记忆表现。这一发现可为未来利用直接呈现优势的嗅觉CDM研究奠定基础。
