Odor memory: Review and analysis

What the study found

Olfactory memory has distinctive associative characteristics and can evoke strong memories even though it does not form a wholly separate memory system.

Limitations

Not a built-environment review; older literature; individual and cultural learning strongly shape odor associations.

Neurodesign interpretation

Scent may be one of architecture's strongest memory-binding channels, but it is also one of the least controllable because its meaning is learned personally.

Possible design implications

Use scent carefully in hotels, healthcare and branded environments because associative memory can outlast the visit.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as the cognitive mechanism source for scent and memory.

Study design

Review

Population

Humans across cognitive studies

Setting

Laboratory olfaction research

Field

Olfactory cognition

Mechanism

Odor memory, associative learning

Spatial variable

Olfactory cues

Keywords

olfaction, memory, associative learning, scent