4 ms·
Bad Smells Make Memories Stronger
- gingabriska 7y agoI wonder what if eating fish increases memorising ability comes from fish smell.
- magic_beans 7y agoYou're assuming fish smells bad. Fresh fish smells delicious.
- amelius 7y agoDepends on the time. In the early morning, not so much.
- woliveirajr 7y agoI couldn't find explicitly if bad smells make only bad memories stronger. I mean, from the first caption from the first image: what good it does too remember a beautiful beach if it will evoke a bad feeling from the bad smell from the trash bin?
- caymanjim 7y agoAnecdotally, it doesn't work that way. I've never thought about a visual experience and had it evoke the memory of a smell. I'm not sure I've ever had anything (other than a smell) evoke the memory of a smell. But every strong smell evokes a cascade of experiential and visual memories. Whenever I smell burning garbage, I think about various places I've traveled, particularly India (this isn't a dig at Indian sanitation per se; it's just that there are small piles of burning garbage all over the place in India, and the memory is strongly attached).
- hansdieter1337 7y agoIIRC any intense emotions and strong feelings cause strong memories.
- mwexler 7y agoIn 1913, French author Marcel Proust highlighted the link between smell and memory in a very eloquent-if-wordy way in his famous (and lengthy) work, Remembrances of Things Past. Here's a good snippet: http://ww3.haverford.edu/psychology/ddavis/p109g/proust.html http://ww3.haverford.edu/psychology/ddavis/p109g/proust.html
- benatkin 7y agoThis recalls the Black Mirror episode Crocodile, where smell is used to jog memories. That was one of the less realistic ones.
- schnable 7y agoI believe it, I remember some subway trips from years ago very vividly.
- jihadjihad 7y agoI can get behind this theory. Some of the most memorable code I've seen is also the smelliest.
- oh_teh_meows 7y agoSo...eat cheese the night of your study cram? (Bad idea if you're lactose intolerant)
- woodrowbarlow 7y agowell... you'd get double the stimulus if you are lactose intolerant
- threatofrain 7y agoYou might need to bring the cheese with you to the test.