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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Does short-term odour memory increase with expertise? An experimental study with perfumers, flavourists, trained panellists and novices

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We have examined short-term memory performance for odour recognition as a function of expertise. Experts (perfumers and flavourists), trained panellists, and novices studied three sets of common and uncommon (perfumery and flavour raw materials) odours with intentional encoding instructions. The three sets included three, six and 12 odours, respectively. As expected, recognition performance indicated an expertise effect: hit rates increased with expertise, whereas false alarm rates decreased. This effect, however, is mediated by the type and number of odours. For common odours, the effect of expertise is significant only for the larger odour set. For uncommon odours, the effect of expertise is significant for all three odour sets. Finally, an order effect was found on hit rate for novices and to a lesser extent for trained panellists, but not for perfumers and flavourists. Taken together these results indicate that, as expected, through training, experts develop a better olfactory short-term memory than novices. This increase in short-term memory performance might be sustained by a better ability to verbalize the odours. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.