Evidence for separate perceptive and semantic memories for odours: A priming experiment

Abstract

Sixty-four subjects participated in an olfactory priming experiment comprising separate study and test phases. Priming was measured within the olfactory modality (intramodal condition) and from the visual modality to the olfactory modality (intermodal condition). In the study phase of the intramodal condition, subjects were exposed twice to a series of odours: once performing a semantic orientation task (deciding which of seven categories odour stimuli belonged to) and once performing a perceptual orientation task (judging the intensity, the hedonicity and the familiarity of odour stimuli). Half of the odour stimuli corresponded to edible products, the other half did not. The study phase of the intermodal condition was similar, with the exception that the names of the odours (instead of the odours themselves) were presented. In the test phase, subjects were presented with primed and non-primed odour targets and had to decide as fast as possible whether the target corresponded to an edible product or not. Response times and types were recorded by a computer. The analysis of response times revealed a priming effect in the intramodal condition only. Results are discussed in terms of separate perceptual and semantic subsystems that store odour representations.