Different forms of human odor memory: a developmental study

Recognizing odors is an important biological function, both in the animal k ingdom as well as for humans. It has been debated whether there exist diffe rent forms of human odor memory. For verbal memory, the concept of recollec tion and familiarity for conscious and unconscious recognition is widely ac cepted. Here we introduce a similar model for human odor memory. We use a c ombination of an odor naming and odor recognition memory task to estimate t he relationship between depth of processing and retention of olfactory info rmation. A developmental approach with children, young adults, middle aged adults and elderly subjects was chosen in order to study the influence of a ge. Our results indicate the existence of two separable forms of odor memor y depending on whether the odors were correctly or incorrectly named during the naming task. These two forms of odor memory were differently represent ed across the human age range. Intact familiarity-based memory was found in all age groups, whereas memory based on recollection was impaired in the e lderly and not yet fully developed in children. Our data show, for the firs t time, two different forms of human odor memory across the human life span . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.