Cognition and Olfaction — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Cognition and Olfaction

Name: Cody Houzenga
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Fulton, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Leslie Cameron
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: The Department of Psychological Sciences

Name: Jill Candos
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Tinley Park, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Leslie Cameron
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Independent research
Funding: The Department of Psychological Sciences

Abstract

Although odor memory is poor compared to visual memory, it is thought to be longer lasting. Evidence for this comes from classic literature of forgetting curves that plateau after an initial decrease in memory. These studies have used only common odors, which may have confounded odor memory with verbal labeling. Moreover, performance was averaged across all odors, which may have differed in how easily they could be labeled or discriminated. The current study examines incidental memory for common and uncommon odors and pictures that vary in their ability to label and discriminate and uses two types of memory task. Ability to remember odors varies greatly across odors and appears to depend primarily on how easily odors can be discriminated. Moreover, the results are also dependent on memory task. These data suggest that odor memory may not be unique and careful attention to methodology is critically important.