Scent Affects Memory

How Scent Affects Memory
Introduction
There are many different methods and styles of learning, such as auditory, visual, active, and many others. However, this experiment will be testing whether or not the sense of smell is also a tool that people may use to their advantage to help along their memory. According to the Sense of Smell Institute, aromas may actually be more effective for studying than something visually appealing, due to their findings that people can perfectly recall an aroma after a year, while they cannot clearly recall an image after only half that time (“Nose Knows: The Power of Smell”, Paragraph 6). This may be because the region of the brain that detects smell, the Olfactory Bulb, is closely located to the Amygdala, which

This information could be used by everyone from Surgical Doctors to the average student to help them remember the material that they have associated with that particular scent. If an individual smells a particular scent while studying, and then smells that scent again when trying to recall that information, it will be easier for them than if they had not used the aroma. The goal of this experiment is to clarify if scent can truly help person recall information after they smelled it while

It may have, however, done the opposite. In trial one, only forty percent of the scores went up (See Trial 1 Chart), in trial two, only thirty percent of the scores got better (See Trial 2 Chart), and, in trial three, only twenty percent of the participants’ scores increased (See Trial 3 Chart). This means, that on average, only twenty-eight percent of the participants did better on their memory test while using the cinnamon scent (See Chart Section 4). Obviously, this majority proves that the participants most often did their best without the help of the cinnamon.
Discussion
The final purpose of this experiment was to find if whether or not using scent as a studying tool can help to increase memory. This information could be used by anyone who is looking for ways to quickly memorize any information given to them. It was believed that smell could help along memory, due to the close locations of the Amygdala and the Olfactory Bulb within the human mind. Both of these organs within the brain, could have made an emotional tie to a particular scent,