Abstract
The present study examined paired-associate learning with color and olfactory stimuli. Separate groups of undergraduate students learned pairs comprised of homogenous colors or scents, or pairs containing both colors and scents in which the order of presentation was manipulated. The results showed that learning was greater with colors than olfactory stimuli. More importantly, the learning task was affected by temporal order. Performance was significantly reduced when the odor element appeared first in the paired presentations. When the scent elements appeared second, learning was rapid and was similar to that which occurred in the group presented with homogenous colors. Discussion focused on the ecological nature of olfactory processing and encoding strategies.
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A portion of this research was supported by a National Science Foundation Grant USE#-9153165. Thanks are extended to Trygg Engen, Frank Schab, Henry Cross, and all those at Llanfair MN for providing constructive comments on earlier drafts.
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Bowers, R.L., Doran, T.P., Edles, P.A. et al. Paired-Associate Learning with Visual and Olfactory Cues: Effects of Temporal Order. Psychol Rec 44, 501–507 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395140
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395140