From Smelling to Remembering

Rebecca Hormann

Through these past through units we have taken a look at different types of memory and the details around them. I would like to take a looks at a phenomenon known as the olfactory memory. The olfactory memory is the concept that a certain smell that is associated with a memory can trigger a being to recall that memory in the moment in which they are in contact with that smell. This not only applies to the images behind a memory but the emotions themselves. Overall, the study finds that the use of an odor can actually be largely more effective in triggering memories than the use of an image.

This psychological knowledge has actually been put to use in many everyday life situations. AN example of this might be a restaurant that specifically produces foods with strong smells so that the human brain takes not of these and is more likely to remember the food or restaurant and ultimately go back. Obviously, the memories or feelings that a smell can trigger will not always be positive, depending on the experiences involved in the first encounter.

So how exactly does this phenomenon work in the human body? Well, after entering the nostril, an odor makes contact with the olfactory bulb which takes the information of this certain smell and transports it to the brain. Smells then go to the amygdala and the hippocampus where they are “processed” and “filed” into our memories where they can later be triggered and opened.

I find this concept to be quite sublime because we tend to associate memories with images or stories, however some of the fondest memories one might have has to do with food or a certain meal. It is nice to know that our bodies are capable of recalling such memories simply through a whiff of freshly baked wonderfulness.

How Smell Can Trigger Memories. (2016, December 5). Retrieved February 28, 2018, from https://reverehealth.com/live-better/smells-can-trigger-memories/

A while back during the summer while working in a retail store I bought a perfume called “Cool” by Ralph Lauren. The bottle was pink and blue and this was a summer limited edition perfume. Soon enough the perfume ran out and I forgot I ever even had it. I moved along to other jobs. Every now and then I would come across the bottle of the perfume on an advertisement or store but seeing the bottle or holding it never really triggered any memories. One day someone walked by me and I smelled the smell of that perfume on them. I had no idea my brain had the capacity of recognizing the smell of a perfume and bringing back so many memories. I instantly knew what perfumed I smelled and it brought me back to the retail store I used to work in and it reminded me of so many people I met and it reminded me of that summer and how my life was at that point in time. I remember saying the words “Time machines are real, my olfactory memory is a time machine.” Although very briefly discussed in lesson 5, sensory memory it’s something that has always intrigued me, specifically olfactory memory. Ever since this event in my life I like to smell perfumes I used years ago and close my eyes and see what I remember. Sometimes my mom cooks a meal and its smell brings me back home, to a much simpler time in the Dominican Republic. I love when it happens and it always leaves me in an awe.
As explained in lesson 5, sensory memory is related to the way we perceive our environment. It says that everything that comes to us through our senses is stored in our sensory memory for a brief period of time. And although very little research has been done in olfactory memory I can oppose to the part where it says that these memories are stored for short periods of times being that by smelling a perfume I used years ago I can remember a date, exactly what I was wearing, my commute to work, the stops along the way, faces on the train ride, stranger’s smile, people I interacted with, what I had for lunch, and more.

An article written by The Fifth Sense organization stated that “The sense of smell is closely linked with memory, probably more so than any of our other senses. Those with full olfactory function may be able to think of smells that evoke particular memories; the scent of an orchard in blossom conjuring up recollections of a childhood picnic, for example. This can often happen spontaneously, with a smell acting as a trigger in recalling a long-forgotten event or experience. Marcel Proust, in his ‘Remembrance of all Things Past’, wrote that a bite of a madeleine vividly recalled childhood memories of his aunt giving him the very same cake before going to mass on a Sunday.” (Fifth Sense 2015) Furthermore the article explained that the sense of smell is also highly emotive, this answering my query about how it was possible to recall past feelings from just smelling an old perfume. “The perfume industry is built around this connection, with perfumers developing fragrances that seek to convey a vast array of emotions and feelings; from desire to power, vitality to relaxation.” (Fifth Sense 2015) Through this quote I was able to understand why my lotion by Aveeno called “Stress Relief” gave me such a sense of relaxation when I put it on. In many instances I thought it was just my brain laying tricks on me because I knew that was the name of the lotion or that maybe there was some sort of drug n the smell of the lotion that made me feel this way.

Given that our feeling of smell unmistakably has an essential influence in our mental make-up, notwithstanding it being one of the five manners by which we associate with our general surroundings, its nonattendance can have a significant effect. Anosmia sufferers frequently discuss feeling segregated and cut-off from their general surroundings, and encountering a ‘blunting’ of the feelings. Notice misfortune can influence one’s capacity to shape and keep up close individual connections and can prompt misery. An essential issue here is the way that scent misfortune is imperceptible to everything except the patient; how might you realize that you had met an anosmia sufferer unless they themselves let you know? This is one reason, close by the general absence of comprehension of the effect that scent has on our lives, why anosmia has never gotten much consideration – you truly don’t recognize what you have until the point that it is no more.

Backpedaling to the focuses made about the solid association amongst smell and memory, it can be seen that losing one’s feeling of smell can bring about the loss of an imperative nostalgic pathway to recollections. Research has demonstrated that loss of olfactory capacity can be a marker of something much more genuine. Notice misfortune happens with both Parkinson’s ailment and Alzheimer, and studies have demonstrated that a reducing feeling of smell can be an early indication of the beginning of the two conditions, happening quite a long while before engine aptitude issues create.

Reference:
F. (2015). Psychology and Smell – Fifth Sense. Retrieved February 27, 2018, from http://www.fifthsense.org.uk/psychology-and-smell/

Explicit memory is long-term memory that is consciously recalled. It is further characterized as consisting of both semantic and episodic memory. Semantic memory is memory for facts while episodic memory is memory for specific personal experiences. (Goldstein, 2017.)

It has often been thought that both types of memory remain strong in our younger years and decline significantly as we get older. I remember working with dementia patients in the past. They had severe neurological decline. I assumed this was the norm as well.

Recent research by the University of the Basque Country attempts to dispute this belief. The study concludes that while elderly people tend to remember less specifics of distant facts than their younger counterparts, they still remember concrete information. It was also noted that mental decline occurs more in episodic memory than semantic memory. In some cases, semantic memory can even improve. (“Memory Loss Among”, 2015). The elderly do remember concepts they have learned about in the past but can have trouble recalling personal facts. The study also showed that older people remember skills they have learned such as driving. This involves procedural memory.

There are things that loved ones can do to help with age related episodic memory decline. A memory scrapbook is one such thing. This scrapbook can include photos as well as family history. One can research historical events that happened during the year that a loved one got married and include an article about this event with their marriage license. This cue may help an elderly loved one remember a personal experience.

Memory is very complex. It is normal to believe that it will decline completely as we grow older. However, this often is not the case. Research has shown otherwise. There are also things we can do to help with any age-related decline such as creating a memory scrapbook.

References
Goldstein, E.B. (2017). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience (4th edition). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning

Memory loss among the elderly is lower than what was originally thought. (2015, June 5). Retrieved from http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/web-page-no-author.aspx

Chomsky had a nativist perspective about language development. This perspective argues that humans are biologically programmed to gain knowledge. Chomsky believed that all humans have a language acquisition device (LAD). The LAD contains knowledge of grammatical rules common to all languages. The LAD also allows children to understand the rules of the language they are learning. Chomsky also developed the concepts of transformational grammar, surface structure, and deep structure. Transformational grammar is grammar that transforms a sentence into a question. Surface structures are words that are actually written. Deep structure is the underlying message or meaning of a sentence. (Matlin, 2005) I agree with Chomsky’s theory as I am a walking example of it.
For many years it was believed that children learned language through imitation. People believed that children stored sentences in their heads and then used the correct one when the time came along. Chomsky then showed this view to be incorrect. We do not simply repeat or imitate language for we are always making up sentences that are grammatically correct. If we only imitated language our language would be very narrow. It is because we follow a grammar system and built in grammar rules that we can invent new sentences that we never heard before. Chomsky believed that children had a remarkable grasp of these rules. He only observed children informally but Roger Brown, who was inspired by Chomsky, serves to help illustrate some findings he made of children’s linguistic capacities. Children are capable of transforming statements into questions. Brown was able to prove this over the years by tape recording a few children’s spontaneous speech. He called this transformation “tag questions” in which a child would end statements with a short question using correct, complex grammar rule such as the one in which if the statement was negative or affirmative the tag question should be the opposite. Also, the child was able to use the right pronoun and knew how to use the correct form of the auxiliary verb. This child’s name was Adam and he was 4 years old. This study illustrates Chomsky’s point that children master complex linguistic rules and procedures in a very short time. Chomsky also introduced the term “deep structure.” This was to help understand how we transform sentences. “The deep structure is the basic structure on which we perform various operations to create new sentences” (Crain, 2005)
Although, Chomsky’s views were found vague and inconsistent because he never studied children himself he inspired many psycholinguists whom made many findings. One of which were the stages of grammar learning. The stages went as follows:
1- Early language learning (birth-1 year old) during this stage the babies begin to make slight body movements to respond to speech and they start gurgling and cooing.
2- One word utterances (1- 1 and a half) at this age children begin producing single words.
3- Two word utterances (1 and a half-2) during this age children start making two word sentences such as “I play”
4- Developing grammar (2-3 years old) during this stage children begin to make three or more words sentences, they begin to use subjects and verbs that go beyond agents and action.
5- Transformation (3-6 years old) during this stage child begins to use more complex rules of grammar and they start being able to switch statements into questions.
6- Adult Grammar (7-10 years old) during this stage children learn to imply more complex rules of grammar.
Chomsky felt that the children’s linguistic capacity were too good to blame on the environment, he believed that it was innate. He believed this innate guidance was called a “universal grammar” and children automatically know the general form any language can take. However, he believed that the “universal grammar” had some holes as it left certain parameters open. He, however, assured that children must have this innate grammar and that regardless of how they shaped their language, without this “universal grammar” they could never master such a complex system in such short time.
I was born in the Dominican Republic and raised by a non-English speaking family. I, however, am fluent in both languages. I, like Chomsky, believe that if I had acquired my languages from imitating my parents and/or rest of my family and surroundings my vocabulary wouldn’t be so proper in either language, not because my family doesn’t speak proper Spanish, but because I grew up in a culture that cuts words in half and takes away and add letters from words and I am proud to say I speak in full sentences. Although I attended school in New York I was thrown in a bilingual program that did not take the time to teach me English, they were so concerned about me being left behind because of the language barrier that they would teach me everything in Spanish instead, this not being any grammar rules. However, after a few months I had to be transferred out the bilingual program into a regular program because they felt it was holding me back, because I started speaking English. Everyone was so surprised at my advance. I can’t say I learned English from imitating others. Yes, they did help shape it, but if it weren’t for the innate universal grammar Chomsky theorized we have I don’t think I would have mastered either languages so well. When I turned 18 I wanted to “perfect” my Spanish and my English some more and just for the fun of it I started taking meta-language classes for both languages. In this course I was learning the name of rules because as far as applying the rules I already knew how to. Where did I learn to apply these rules? No one ever sat with me and explained to me that you use an apostrophe when you are going to express ownership of a person, animal and/or object. But my biggest surprise was taking Spanish classes. The amount of rules I was given and I never even had to take notes, one example and I already knew what they were talking about. When people from back home ask me how I do so well in Spanish classes I always tell them “teachers are only giving you the name of a rule you apply on a daily basis, you make up sentences of your own using these rules and you don’t even know it, just get the name of the rule, an example and pull out the rest from what you already know,” which is what I always do. I am taking a Spanish course this semester and my lowest grade has been a 99 on my exams. I find myself knowing exactly what the professor is talking about with very little explanation. When he first starts talking about the rule I may be confused because I’m not sure what form of the language he is referring to but once he gives the first example I catch right on and realize I’ve been applying this rule to my vocabulary for as long as I could remember. For example when it comes to accent marks I always knew where to mark the accent and when, I just never knew there was a name for words that were marked on the last syllable or the first. I didn’t know the name for certain accents and why they were there I just knew that because of the pronunciation of the words and the syllable that was stressed most had to be marked with an accent. I feel that by taking courses and other extracurricular activities in both languages I learned the names of the rules I was applying but not how to apply these rules as I already knew how and I’ve never been able to explain this up until now because I now know that we have an innate universal grammar.
Chomsky theorized that we have a universal grammar and that we are born with a Language Acquisition Device, that although the environment helped shape our vocabulary they were not fully responsible because if this was so our language would have been extremely limited. I agree with this because if it weren’t for this I don’t think 27 years is enough to have mastered two languages the way I have mastered English and Spanish. Yes, I do have slips in both, but Chomsky said himself, that this universal grammar has some holes because some rules that apply to one language don’t apply to another and this can affect my grammar sometimes.

Although I am a discreet person and don’t normally share my life experiences I felt like I should use this blog post to relate my person experience with MRI and fMRI testing while measuring the brain. A topic we have discussed in this course so far is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Functional MRI (fMRI).  We discussed this topic when we were studying “Measuring the Brian under Lesson 2.”   According to our lesson an MRI is a detailed testing tool that is done to help doctors see parts of the “brain as well as other body parts as small as millimeters to determine what’s wrong.”  While fMRI’s are a little different and look at different locations in the brain that require different amounts of blood and oxygen to function and work properly.  Many people who experience “strokes or brain injuries are giving an MRI to check for blood vessel problems in the head.”

An example of an event that illustrates this topic is an accident that occurred to my paternal uncle about three-four years ago.  My uncle was out one night and was punched in his face and fell straight onto his back while hitting the back of his head on the concrete.  The cops were called and they found him lying on the ground passed out cold.  They immediately called for an ambulance and my uncle was brought to the hospital until he regained consciousness but since he was out at a local bar they assumed he passed out from acute alcoholism and they did not know what really happened to him.  He was treated for acute alcoholism and released that same night.

However, the next day he returned home to my parents’ house and seemed fine but then he stopped coming out of his room and complained of a persistent headache, had very slurred speech, and extreme confusion along with dizziness.  He refused to go to the doctor so my mother took initiative and called the ambulance to take him back to the hospital.  When he was taken back to the hospital they immediately sent him to get an MRI.  They found that he had bleeding on the brain and needed emergency surgery.  They then rushed him to another hospital’s trauma center because this bleeding was occurring from the night he was knocked to the ground when his head hit the cement.  They found from the MRI and CT scan that the occipital lobe was deeply affected after the surgery.

Having taken courses in both Anatomy and microbiology in the past I have learned a lot about the body and know that the occipital lobe affects many important normal day to day functions of the human body.  I did not know prior to this life experience that the most traumatic brain injuries result in damage to the occipital lobe.  “Most traumatic brain injuries occur to people who have accidents such as car accidents, firearms, and falls.”  After he recovered from surgery he was sent to a Traumatic Brain Injury rehabilitation center and still resides there till this day.  He has a team of doctors that include a general physician, a neuropsychologist, a psychiatrist, a physical therapy doctor, a speech therapist, a social worker, along with a team of nurses.  All of them constantly work with him while making realistic plans for his future.

Thankfully, there are tests that can be done to see underneath the skin even if the person appears physically fine.  My uncle appeared normal on the outside but his behavior, loss of appetite, slurred speech, and confusion, is what helped determine initially that something just was not right with him.  They knew once they seen how delusional he was that some type of area in the brain was being affected and sent him immediately to get an MRI.  If this was “early days of Psychology they would have to waited for a person to die to study the brain.”  Luckily that is no longer the case and they have advanced testing that can produce results to see what is affecting our cognitive psychology.

References

1. “Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI .” Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI: Practice Essentials, Goals of MRI in the Evaluation of ICH, Pathophysiology, 7 Dec. 2017, emedicine.medscape.com/article/344973-overview.
2. “Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI .” Intracranial Hemorrhage Evaluation with MRI: Practice Essentials, Goals of MRI in the Evaluation of ICH, Pathophysiology, 7 Dec. 2017, emedicine.medscape.com/article/344973-overview.

By definition, perception is the conscious experience that results from the stimulation of the senses. However, when we refer to perception we need to go a little deeper to understand its meaning. It is not about completely following a certain point of view but, on the contrary, it deals more with the meaning that we provide to it. This refers to our own interpretation to things. For example, when we refer to the concept of life itself, there are different perspectives to it. Different people view it in different ways. However, these are their perspectives. Perception to life is when we understand and are aware of different perspectives, have gone through different experiences and based on them, we create our own interpretation, our own insight. This is perception.

One of the topics within our textbook was regarding speech perception, specifically with a language that is unknown to us. Speaking from my own experience, when you learn a new language, you have to take it as an extremely humbling experience because it basically means accepting that every word in your vocabulary is wrong. Most people truly don’t understand how much your identity is attached to your language until you are forced to speak another one. We have to let go of our street slang, movie quotes and old fashioned sayings. Every language can provide you with a new perception of the world, and this is why the concept of perception is so unique.

In English for example, we have a separate word for a lemon and lime, however in Spanish these are both considered limes, and differentiated by color, such as limon (lemon) or limon verde (lime)

Even further, there are many different dialects with the Spanish speaking world. My fiancé whose family comes from the Dominican Republic, typically speak extremely fast, smash words together and have crazy slang that nobody understands. Although I am pretty proficient at speaking Spanish, I have a much more difficult time breaking this down in my brain and understanding the conversation entirely.

However, were I to visit my friends family, who is Colombian, I have a much easier time deciphering the conversation because they speak slower and well as with fully pronounced words. For some reason, my perception of this seems to be less difficult than listening to my in laws. I definitely attribute this situation to the fact that I am only partially fluent, but I have always found it so fascinating. Were I to speak fluently, as my fiancé does, I would be able to switch back and forth between the too easily.

Vanhorn, D., Francis, G., Neath, I., & Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive psychology: mind, research and everyday experience, Fourth edition, E. Bruce Goldstein. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.