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Sorokowska A, Trzciński M, Cieśla R, Skubisz-Ślusarczyk SA, Zieniewicz I, Hummel T, Sorokowski P. Odor exposure and recall of a virtual reality crime scene: A preliminary study. Sci Justice 2023; 63:537-541. [PMID: 37453786 DOI: 10.1016/j.scijus.2023.06.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/14/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Environmental context reinstatement has a particular value for recall of information in forensic interviews. Since odors are valuable memory cues and can act as memory triggers, in our preliminary study we explored whether odor exposure can help people recall details of a crime scene. The study comprised 58 women and 15 men aged 22-35 who immersed in a carefully controlled environment closely resembling an actual crime setting, i.e., a virtual reality crime. Participants were exposed to an odor at encoding, recall, both or neither of these instances, yielding a total of 4 experimental groups that further completed a memory recall task. The crime scene content recall was tested in a free recall and a forced-response test immediately after seeing the crime scene and one month later. We found no significant effects of odor exposure on the free or the cued recall of the crime scene. The memory scores correlated neither with the self-assessed olfactory/visual sensitivity of the subjects, nor with the perceived odor pleasantness. These preliminary findings suggest that introduction of a vanilla odor while encoding and recalling a crime scene does not aid witness recall accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Sorokowska
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wroclaw, Poland.
| | - Maciej Trzciński
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of Wroclaw, ul. Uniwersytecka 22/26, 50-145 Wrocław, Poland.
| | - Rafał Cieśla
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of Wroclaw, ul. Uniwersytecka 22/26, 50-145 Wrocław, Poland.
| | - Sylwia Adrianna Skubisz-Ślusarczyk
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of Wroclaw, ul. Uniwersytecka 22/26, 50-145 Wrocław, Poland.
| | - Iwona Zieniewicz
- Department of Forensic Sciences, Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics, University of Wroclaw, ul. Uniwersytecka 22/26, 50-145 Wrocław, Poland.
| | - Thomas Hummel
- Smell & Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngolory, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany.
| | - Piotr Sorokowski
- Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, ul. Dawida 1, 50-527 Wroclaw, Poland.
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2
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Sorokowska A, Nord M, Stefańczyk MM, Larsson M. Odor-based context-dependent memory: influence of olfactory cues on declarative and nondeclarative memory indices. Learn Mem 2022; 29:136-141. [PMID: 35483742 DOI: 10.1101/lm.053562.121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2021] [Accepted: 04/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Reinstating the olfactory learning context can increase access to memory information, but it is not fully clear which memory functions are subject to an enhancing odor context reinstatement effect. Here, we tested whether congruent odor context during encoding and recall positively affected declarative and nondeclarative memory scores using a novel method for manipulation of an odorous environment; namely, intranasal Nosa plugs. Recall of a text and a complex figure as well as performance in a priming task were assessed immediately and 1 wk after encoding. We found that congruent odor exposure at encoding and recall aided free retrieval of a story at delayed testing but had no significant effect on a complex figure recall or a word completion task. Differences between the assessed memory indices suggest that olfactory environmental cues may be primarily efficient in free verbal recall tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Sorokowska
- Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.,Smell and Taste Research Lab, Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, 50 597 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Marie Nord
- Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Michał Mikołaj Stefańczyk
- Smell and Taste Research Lab, Institute of Psychology, University of Wroclaw, 50 597 Wroclaw, Poland
| | - Maria Larsson
- Gösta Ekman Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
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Mobile Sensing with Smart Wearables of the Physical Context of Distance Learning Students to Consider Its Effects on Learning. SENSORS 2021; 21:s21196649. [PMID: 34640969 PMCID: PMC8512266 DOI: 10.3390/s21196649] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Revised: 09/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Research shows that various contextual factors can have an impact on learning. Some of these factors can originate from the physical learning environment (PLE) in this regard. When learning from home, learners have to organize their PLE by themselves. This paper is concerned with identifying, measuring, and collecting factors from the PLE that may affect learning using mobile sensing. More specifically, this paper first investigates which factors from the PLE can affect distance learning. The results identify nine types of factors from the PLE associated with cognitive, physiological, and affective effects on learning. Subsequently, this paper examines which instruments can be used to measure the investigated factors. The results highlight several methods involving smart wearables (SWs) to measure these factors from PLEs successfully. Third, this paper explores how software infrastructure can be designed to measure, collect, and process the identified multimodal data from and about the PLE by utilizing mobile sensing. The design and implementation of the Edutex software infrastructure described in this paper will enable learning analytics stakeholders to use data from and about the learners’ physical contexts. Edutex achieves this by utilizing sensor data from smartphones and smartwatches, in addition to response data from experience samples and questionnaires from learners’ smartwatches. Finally, this paper evaluates to what extent the developed infrastructure can provide relevant information about the learning context in a field study with 10 participants. The evaluation demonstrates how the software infrastructure can contextualize multimodal sensor data, such as lighting, ambient noise, and location, with user responses in a reliable, efficient, and protected manner.
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4
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Smith SM, Beda Z. Forgetting fixation with context change. JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jarmac.2019.12.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Cecchetto C, Fischmeister FPS, Gorkiewicz S, Schuehly W, Bagga D, Parma V, Schöpf V. Human body odor increases familiarity for faces during encoding-retrieval task. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 41:1904-1919. [PMID: 31904899 PMCID: PMC7268037 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.24920] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2019] [Revised: 10/31/2019] [Accepted: 12/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Odors can increase memory performance when presented as context during both encoding and retrieval phases. Since information from different sensory modalities is integrated into a unified conceptual knowledge, we hypothesize that the social information from body odors and faces would be integrated during encoding. The integration of such social information would enhance retrieval more so than when the encoding occurs in the context of common odors. To examine this hypothesis and to further explore the underlying neural correlates of this behavior, we have conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study in which participants performed an encoding‐retrieval memory task for faces during the presentation of common odor, body odor or clean air. At the behavioral level, results show that participants were less biased and faster in recognizing faces when presented in concomitance with the body odor compared to the common odor. At the neural level, the encoding of faces in the body odor condition, compared to common odor and clean air conditions, showed greater activation in areas related to associative memory (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), odor perception and multisensory integration (orbitofrontal cortex). These results suggest that face and body odor information were integrated and as a result, participants were faster in recognizing previously presented material.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cinzia Cecchetto
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.,BioTechMed, Graz, Austria
| | | | | | | | - Deepika Bagga
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.,BioTechMed, Graz, Austria
| | - Valentina Parma
- Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Veronika Schöpf
- Institute of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.,BioTechMed, Graz, Austria.,Computational Imaging Research Lab (CIR), Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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6
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Abstract
The sense of smell has made a recent return to the forefront of research on episodic memory. Odour context cues can reactivate recently encoded memories during sleep-dependent memory consolidation [e.g., Rasch, B., Buchel, C., Gais, S., & Born, J. (2007). Odor cues during slow-wave sleep prompt declarative memory consolidation. Science, 315, 1426-1429], and reinstating the odour experienced during encoding at test results in superior recall and recognition [e.g., Isarida, T., Sakai, T., Kubota, T., Koga, M., Katayama, Y., & Isarida, T. K. (2014). Odor-context effects in free recall after a short retention interval: A new methodology for controlling adaptation. Memory & Cognition, 42, 421-433]. However, whether the impact of odour cues is restricted to the specific memories studied in the presence of the odour, or whether reinstating the odour also cues unstudied memories that are semantically related to the studied memories (i.e., false memories) is unknown. We used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm to quantify the impact of odour cues on both veridical memory and false memory. Reinstating the odour presented during the study of the DRM word lists at the test phase resulted in better free recall of the studied words, but had no statistically significant impact on the number of false memories produced. We argue that odour cues influence recall of the memories they co-occurred with during study but potentially not semantically related memories.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jakke Tamminen
- a Department of Psychology , Royal Holloway, University of London , Egham , UK
| | - Mariam Mebude
- a Department of Psychology , Royal Holloway, University of London , Egham , UK
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Woods JA, Dewhurst SA. Putting false memories into context: the effects of odour contexts on correct and false recall. Memory 2018; 27:379-386. [DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2018.1512632] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joshua A. Woods
- Department of Psychology, Grand View University, Des Moines, IA, USA
| | - Stephen A. Dewhurst
- Department of Psychology, School of Life Sciences, University of Hull, Hull, UK
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8
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Parma V, Macedo S, Rocha M, Alho L, Ferreira J, Soares SC. The Effects of Emotional Visual Context on the Encoding and Retrieval of Body Odor Information. Perception 2018; 47:451-465. [PMID: 29392993 DOI: 10.1177/0301006618756811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Conditions during information encoding and retrieval are known to influence the sensory material stored and its recapitulation. However, little is known about such processes in olfaction. Here, we capitalized on the uniqueness of body odors (BOs) which, similar to fingerprints, allow for the identification of a specific person, by associating their presentation to a negative or a neutral emotional context. One hundred twenty-five receivers (68 F) were exposed to a male BO while watching either criminal or neutral videos (encoding phase) and were subsequently asked to recognize the target BO within either a congruent or an incongruent visual context (retrieval phase). The results showed that criminal videos were rated as more vivid, unpleasant, and arousing than neutral videos both at encoding and retrieval. Moreover, in terms of BO ratings, we found that odor intensity and arousal allow to distinguish the target from the foils when congruent criminal information is presented at encoding and retrieval. Finally, the accuracy performance was not significantly different from chance level for either condition. These findings provide insights on how olfactory memories are processed in emotional situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Parma
- International School for Advanced Studies - SISSA, Neuroscience Area, Trieste, Italy; Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; William James Center for Research (WJCR), Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA), Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Stephanie Macedo
- CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Marta Rocha
- William James Center for Research (WJCR), Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA), Lisbon, Portugal; CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal
| | - Laura Alho
- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), CIS-IUL, Portugal; Escola de Psicologia e Ciências da Vida, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Jacqueline Ferreira
- CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal; Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Life Sciences (IBILI), Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
| | - Sandra C Soares
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; William James Center for Research (WJCR), Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada (ISPA), Lisbon, Portugal; CINTESIS.UA, Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Portugal; Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Life Sciences (IBILI), Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal
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9
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Reichert J, Ninaus M, Schuehly W, Hirschmann C, Bagga D, Schöpf V. Functional brain networks during picture encoding and recognition in different odor contexts. Behav Brain Res 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.06.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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10
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Magnusson M, Landström S. Smell and tell: Strategically using odours to facilitate communication during witness interviews. NORDIC PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/19012276.2017.1282325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Mikaela Magnusson
- Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 500, Gothenburg SE 405 30, Sweden
| | - Sara Landström
- Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 500, Gothenburg SE 405 30, Sweden
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12
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Sajjacholapunt P, Ball LJ. The influence of banner advertisements on attention and memory: human faces with averted gaze can enhance advertising effectiveness. Front Psychol 2014; 5:166. [PMID: 24624104 PMCID: PMC3941030 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2013] [Accepted: 02/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Research suggests that banner advertisements used in online marketing are often overlooked, especially when positioned horizontally on webpages. Such inattention invariably gives rise to an inability to remember advertising brands and messages, undermining the effectiveness of this marketing method. Recent interest has focused on whether human faces within banner advertisements can increase attention to the information they contain, since the gaze cues conveyed by faces can influence where observers look. We report an experiment that investigated the efficacy of faces located in banner advertisements to enhance the attentional processing and memorability of banner contents. We tracked participants' eye movements when they examined webpages containing either bottom-right vertical banners or bottom-center horizontal banners. We also manipulated facial information such that banners either contained no face, a face with mutual gaze or a face with averted gaze. We additionally assessed people's memories for brands and advertising messages. Results indicated that relative to other conditions, the condition involving faces with averted gaze increased attention to the banner overall, as well as to the advertising text and product. Memorability of the brand and advertising message was also enhanced. Conversely, in the condition involving faces with mutual gaze, the focus of attention was localized more on the face region rather than on the text or product, weakening any memory benefits for the brand and advertising message. This detrimental impact of mutual gaze on attention to advertised products was especially marked for vertical banners. These results demonstrate that the inclusion of human faces with averted gaze in banner advertisements provides a promising means for marketers to increase the attention paid to such adverts, thereby enhancing memory for advertising information.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Linden J Ball
- School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire Preston, UK
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Odor-context effects in free recall after a short retention interval: a new methodology for controlling adaptation. Mem Cognit 2013; 42:421-33. [PMID: 24222319 DOI: 10.3758/s13421-013-0370-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The present study investigated context effects of incidental odors in free recall after a short retention interval (5 min). With a short retention interval, the results are not confounded by extraneous odors or encounters with the experimental odor and possible rehearsal during a long retention interval. A short study time condition (4 s per item), predicted not to be affected by adaptation to the odor, and a long study time condition (8 s per item) were used. Additionally, we introduced a new method for recovery from adaptation, where a dissimilar odor was briefly presented at the beginning of the retention interval, and we demonstrated the effectiveness of this technique. An incidental learning paradigm was used to prevent overshadowing from confounding the results. In three experiments, undergraduates (N = 200) incidentally studied words presented one-by-one and received a free recall test. Two pairs of odors and a third odor having different semantic-differential characteristics were selected from 14 familiar odors. One of the odors was presented during encoding, and during the test, the same odor (same-context condition) or the other odor within the pair (different-context condition) was presented. Without using a recovery-from-adaptation method, a significant odor-context effect appeared in the 4-s/item condition, but not in the 8-s/item condition. Using the recovery-from-adaptation method, context effects were found for both the 8- and the 4-s/item conditions. The size of the recovered odor-context effect did not change with study time. There were no serial position effects. Implications of the present findings are discussed.
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Garczynski AM, Brown CM. Active Self-aspects as a Basis for Encoding Specificity Effects in Memory. SELF AND IDENTITY 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/15298868.2012.679033] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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15
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Cognitive facilitation following intentional odor exposure. SENSORS 2011; 11:5469-88. [PMID: 22163909 PMCID: PMC3231408 DOI: 10.3390/s110505469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2011] [Revised: 05/10/2011] [Accepted: 05/17/2011] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
This paper reviews evidence that, in addition to incidental olfactory pollutants, intentional odor delivery can impact cognitive operations both positively and negatively. Evidence for cognitive facilitation/interference is reviewed alongside four potential explanations for odor-induced effects. It is concluded that the pharmacological properties of odors can induce changes in cognition. However, these effects can be accentuated/attenuated by the shift in mood following odor exposure, expectancy of cognitive effects, and cues to behavior via the contextual association with the odor. It is proposed that greater consideration is required in the intentional utilization of odors within both industrial and private locations, since differential effects are observed for odors with positive hedonic qualities.
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