As part of a programme of studies investigating memory for everyday ta
sks, we examined the potential of auditory and olfactory sensory cues
to improve free recall of an action event (cooking an omelette) by ind
ividuals with dementia of the Alzheimer type. Both healthy elderly and
volunteers with DAT recalled more of the individual actions which com
prised the event when they listened, prior to recall, to a tape of sou
nds associated with the event. Olfactory cues which accompanied audito
ry cues did not produce additional benefits over auditory cues alone.
The pattern of recall suggests that the auditory cues improved recall
of the whole event, and were not merely increasing recall of the speci
fic actions associated with the sound cues. The results strongly sugge
st that individuals with DAT continue to encode experiences multimodal
ly, and that they can subsequently use sensory information to aid memo
ry. This has practical implications for accessing residual memory for
a wide range of everyday activities.