Expertise and memory for beers and beer olfactory compounds

Abstract Do beer experts have better recognition memory for beers than novices? And can recognition memory for beers be predicted on the basis of recognition memory for beer odor compounds? We compared the memory performance of “beer experts” and novices in two recognition tasks. The first task was performed ortho- and retronasally with beers, and the second orthonasally with beer odor compounds. As a control we also compared the performance of “experts” and novices on an identification task and a same/different discrimination task. “Beer experts” outperformed novices in both the identification task and the recognition memory task with both beers and odor compounds, but only for beers they …