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>> I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells Those are classes of
by sandworm101 3y ago
>> I could identify pretty well. Smell of home, pencil rubbers, chalk clouds, rotten bananas, denim.. things do have quite specific smells
Those are classes of things, not specific objects. We all know the smell of erasers, but can we identify the smell of a specific eraser? Part of it is sensitivity but it is also largely that our brains are not designed to associate smells with individual objects. Think of how we handle faces, which we can spot even if at a different orientation than we have seen before. Or how we can hear a specific voice amongst a crowd. Dogs do that with scent profiles.
- dj_mc_merlin 3y agoThis is a really good way to frame it that would indeed mean we only remember dozens of individual things, if that. The smell of home remains, as well as the smells of close relatives.. but I can't think of much else.
- ProfessorLayton 3y agoNot sure how to word this without getting too weird, but It's certainly possible to identify well over a dozen people by smell alone — not just friends/family that one spends a lot of time with, but also attractive people.