Does Odor Knowledge or an Odor Naming Strategy Mediate the Relationship Between Odor Naming and Recognition Memory?

We observed a relationship between odor naming and recognition memory in a recent series of studies. Consistently and/or correctly named odors were associated with excellent recognition memory while inconsistently and/or incorrectly named odors were associated with poor memory. It was speculated that odor knowledge was the basis for the relationship between odor naming and recognition memory. An alternative explanation is that participants employed a naming strategy to guide their memory responses, relying on memories for the odor names given as responses during memory encoding. The validity of these competing hypotheses was tested by manipulating the temporal presentation order of odor naming and memory responses. The results revealed that the predictive power of odor naming, as well as its memory-enhancing effects, was affected by the temporal order of naming and memory responses. The relationship between odor naming and memory declined substantially under conditions that reduced or eliminated the possibility of using remembered names as a guide for recognition memory responses. It was concluded that the previously observed ability of naming to predict odor recognition memory was not related to odor knowledge, but rather, relied on naming responses.