Scented memories of literature

This study examined the effects on recall of story details of congruity or incongruity between the hedonic valence of literary texts and odours inhaled while reading them. During the reading session, 24 undergraduates (12 males and 12 females) read two passages involving positive subject matter and two with negative subject matter while sniffing pleasant or unpleasant odours in a within‐subject fully counterbalanced design. Subjects rated their experience of each text on eleven 7‐point scales. During the test session 48 hours later, subjects read a two‐word title associated with each of the passages and inhaled the odour that was paired with it in the reading session. They also rated their experience on six of the scales that had been used during the reading session. Results showed that hedonic congruence between the passage and the odour fostered enhanced recall during the test session. The combination of positive subject matter and positive odour was reflected in more accurate recall of character details, while pairing negative subject matter and negative odour resulted in more accurate recall of setting details. Regression analysis showed that overall recall accuracy was increased by identifying with the characters in the stories and for passages that were found pleasing and personally meaningful. Consistent with the literature on implicit learning involving odours, recall accuracy varied inversely with perceived odour intensity. Implicit learning involving odours and literary passages is therefore fostered by unity in the reading experience.     

Acquired hedonic and sensory characteristics of odours: Influence of sweet liker and propylthiouracil taster status

Repeated pairings of novel food-related odours with sweet tastes can result in enduring changes in sweetness of the odour alone, but have less consistent effects on odour liking. Variation in ability to taste propylthiouracil (PROP) might account for this, since PROP supertasters (ST) have been reported both to experience stronger sweetness intensity and to be more likely to dislike sweetness than do PROP nontasters (NT). Alternatively, individual differences in liking for sweetness may transfer to sweet-paired odours independently of PROP sensitivity. To explore this, evaluations of sucrose, saccharin, and PROP solutions were used to classify 92 volunteers as either sweet likers or dislikers and as PROP ST, NT, or medium tasters (MT). Changes in pleasantness of odours that had been paired with the taste of saccharin increased in sweet likers but decreased in dislikers. Odour sweetness increased regardless of PROP taster or sweet liker status. PROP ST rated saccharin as more bitter than did other taster groups and also showed greater increases in acquired bitterness of the saccharin-paired odour. Overall, these data suggest that individual differences in evaluation of saccharin reliably predict subsequent changes in evaluation of saccharin-paired odours, with hedonic changes corresponding with liking for sweet tastes and sensory changes reflecting differences in sensory quality between PROP taster groups.     

The relation between oral reading miscue patterns and comprehension: A test of the relative explanatory power of psycholinguistic and interactive views of reading

The use of oral reading to assess silent reading ability has gained wide acceptance despite the lack of definitive evidence that the two processes are similar. Moreover, there are a number of theoretical positions that run counter to assumptions underlying oral reading error analysis as a measure of silent reading competency. This study examined the relation between multiple oral reading miscue measures and postreading comprehension performance. Correlations between the oral reading and comprehension measures indicated a negative relation between oral reading and recall following the reading of familiar passages and a positive relation between oral reading and an inferential comprehension measure following the reading of unfamiliar passages. In addition, when the subjects read disrupted passages, their attempts at correcting incongruous errors and their self-report interviews indicated that their oral reading was not related to their performance on comprehension product measures. The results, which are discrepant with previous research relating oral reading to comprehension, are discussed in terms of a comparison between psycholinguistic and interactive models of reading comprehension.     

Gender and handedness effects on hedonicity of laterally presented odours

The effect of lateral presentation of odours on the hedonic evaluation is reported using a range of different substances. The hypothesis that hedonic evaluation of odours depends on stimulated nostril and on gender and handedness is tested using psychophysical methodology. A total of 51 untrained subjects evaluated 16 substances with different hedonic valences. Each odour substance was presented to the subjects four times, twice at each nostril using a balanced experimental design. Effects of gender and handedness, and interactions, are observed. Some parallels with the perception of visual emotional stimuli are suggested. Hedonic processing of odour stimuli is concluded to be an emotional, rather than an analytical task.     

Metamemory for narrative text

In this experiment, we investigated metamemory for narrative text passages. Subjects read two stories and made memory predictions for the idea units in one and rated the importance of ideas in the other. Half of the subjects were asked to recall the story immediately after reading the passages and half were asked to recall 1 week later; half received passages with single inconsistent idea units and half received passages with corresponding consistent idea units. All subjects made confidence judgments about the accuracy of their recall. Subjects’ prediction ratings were related to recall, as shown by significant prediction accuracy quotients. Importance ratings were related to recall on the delayed test but not on the immediate test. Memory prediction ratings predicted recall better than did importance ratings. The absolute level of memory predictions did not differ with delay, but subjects did give higher confidence judgments on an immediate than on a delayed test. Subjects recalled the inconsistent idea better than the consistent idea for one story but not for the other. For both stories, subjects predicted that they would remember the inconsistent ideas better, suggesting that they have avon Restorff-type view, rather than a schema view, of memory. We conclude that subjects can predict their memory for the idea units in narrative text.     

Olfactory hedonic context affects both self-report and behavioural indices of palatability

Prior exposure to either a pleasant or unpleasant context may affect later hedonic judgments of a common target stimulus. We explored whether this effect translates into behaviour in the chemical senses. In experiment 1 participants experienced either a pleasant or unpleasant set of odours or pictures, followed by an unfamiliar odour. After self-report hedonic evaluations of the odour, participants were allowed to drink it in solution, followed by a further evaluation of its flavour. Participants reported liking the odour less after smelling pleasant odours and drank less of it too, relative to the unpleasant context. There was no differential context effect for emotive pictures. Experiment 2 replicated these effects, but also included a no-context control. This revealed that the consumption effect was localised to the pleasant olfactory context, whilst contextual effects for liking ratings were primarily localised to the unpleasant olfactory context. In conclusion, hedonic context affects both self-report and behaviour, but not in the same way.     

Inhibition of evaluative and perceptual odour–taste learning by attention to the stimulus elements

Pairing of odours and tastes in solution results in the odour taking on the taste's hedonic and perceptual properties. Theoretical accounts of such conditioning propose that the stimulus elements form a configuration with hedonic and/or perceptual properties. One implication of this account is that configural binding may be inhibited by allocation of attention to the individual elements during conditioning (analytical attention). This was tested here by training participants to attend analytically or synthetically during pairing of odours with either sucrose or water. Differential conditioning effects for sucrose- and water-paired odours were seen only in the synthetic group, with sucrose-paired odours increasing in both smelled sweetness and liking. These data support configural models as explanations for these forms of associative learning and emphasize the role of top-down processes in mediating transfer of perceptual and hedonic properties from tastes to odours.     

The influence of verbal labeling on the perception of odors: evidence for olfactory illusions?

Using the definition that an illusion is observed when a stimulus is invariant but context alters its perception, we examined whether verbal context could produce olfactory illusions. To test this effect, we chose five odors with minimally fixed sources and that could be interpreted with various hedonic connotations. The odors were violet leaf, patchouli, pine oil, menthol, and a 1:1 mixture of isovaleric and butyric acids. Subjects individually sniffed each odor at two different sessions separated by one week. At each session an odor was given a different verbal label (either positive or negative) and subjects rated the odors on several hedonic scales and provided perceptual and interpretative responses to them. Results showed that the perception of an odor could be significantly influenced by the label provided for it. We propose that the cases where verbal labels inverted odor perception are the first empirical demonstrations of olfactory illusions.     

Differentiating between memory and interpretation biases in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

Although individual cognitive biases toward threat in social anxiety are well established, few studies have examined the manner in which cognitive biases work in conjunction. In the present study, socially anxious ( n = 54 ) and nonanxious ( n = 58 ) individuals read 10 passages consisting of positive social or evaluative, negative social or evaluative, and neutral content and completed two cognitive tasks assessing memory of factual details and interpretation immediately and after 48 h. Socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their memory for details presented in the passages. However, they made less positive and more negative interpretations of details included in the passages, particularly in positive passages that were self-relevant and particularly in positive passages after the delay. After including depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety as covariates, biased interpretation of positive passages after the time delay remained significant, but biased interpretation of the self-relevant, positive passages did not. It is concluded that socially anxious individuals are characterized by accurate memory of threatening, factual material, but that they impose a biased interpretation upon that material, especially after some time has passed.     

POSITIVE EMOTIONS ENHANCE RECALL OF PERIPHERAL DETAILS

Emotional arousal and negative affect enhance recall of central aspects of an event. However, the role of discrete emotions in selective memory processing is understudied. Undergraduates were asked to recall and rate autobiographical memories of eight emotional events. Details of each memory were rated as central or peripheral to the event. Significance of the event, vividness, reliving and other aspects of remembering were also rated for each event. Positive affect enhanced recall of peripheral details. Furthermore, the impairment of peripheral recall was greatest in memories of anger, not of fear. Reliving the experience at retrieval was negatively correlated with recall of peripheral details for some emotions (e.g., anger) but not others (e.g., fear), irrespective of similarities in affect and intensity. Within individuals, recall of peripheral details was correlated with less belief in the memory's accuracy and more likelihood to recall the memory from one's own eyes (i.e., a field perspective).     

Reduced discriminability following perceptual learning with odours

In this experiment, the effects of prior experience on odour perception and discrimination were explored. Participants repeatedly sniffed a mixture composed of two odours, AX, as well as smelling two further odours alone, B and Y. After this training phase, participants were asked to rate the similarity of the odours A and X, B and Y, and a non-exposed pair C and Z. A and X were judged as significantly more alike than the other pairs. Exactly the same pattern emerged on a second test, in which participants were asked to select the odd odour out of sets of three. It was consistently harder for participants to pick the odd odour when the stimuli were drawn from the AX pair (eg A versus AX versus AX). Not only do these findings demonstrate that prior experience can affect odour perception, a finding not predicted by theories of odour perception based solely upon the physiochemical properties of odours, they also suggest that experience can act to selectively decrease discriminability.     

Positive emotions enhance recall of peripheral details

Emotional arousal and negative affect enhance recall of central aspects of an event. However, the role of discrete emotions in selective memory processing is understudied. Undergraduates were asked to recall and rate autobiographical memories of eight emotional events. Details of each memory were rated as central or peripheral to the event. Significance of the event, vividness, reliving and other aspects of remembering were also rated for each memory. Positive affect enhanced recall of peripheral details. Furthermore, the impairment of peripheral recall was greatest in memories of anger, not of fear. Reliving the experience at retrieval was negatively correlated with recall of peripheral details for some emotions (e.g., anger) but not others (e.g., fear), irrespective of similarities in affect and intensity. Within individuals, recall of peripheral details was correlated with less belief in the memory's accuracy and more likelihood to recall the memory from one's own eyes (i.e., a field perspective).     

An introduction to the reading of Bion

The author suggests that a good deal of the confusion that arises in the course of reading Bion derives from the fact that Bion's analytic writing is comprised of two periods of work that involve markedly different conceptions of psychoanalysis. These two periods require of the reader very different ways of reading and generate contrasting experiences in reading. Bion, in passages in Learning from experience (1962) and Attention and interpretation (1970), offers advice to the reader regarding how he would like his 'early' and 'late' work to be read. The author treats the experience of reading these passages as ports of entry into the fundamental tenets underlying Bion's widely differing conceptions of the psychoanalytic enterprise. The experience of reading early Bion generates a sense of psychoanalysis as a never completed process of clarifying obscurities and obscuring clarifications, which enterprise moves in the direction of a convergence of disparate meanings. Incontrast, the experience of reading Bion's later work conveys a sense of psychoanalysis as a process involving a movement toward infinite expansion of meaning. The author offers a detailed account of an analytic experience which he discusses from a point of view informed by Bion's work, particularly his late work.     

Active Reading Procedures for Moderating the Effects of Poor Highlighting

We investigated two active reading techniques intended to eliminate the negative effect on reading comprehension of preexisting, inappropriate highlighting. College students read passages in three highlighting conditions: no highlighting, appropriate highlighting, and inappropriate highlighting. In Experiment 1, 30 students read the passages while using a finger as if it were a highlighter. In Experiment 2, another 30 students used blue highlighters while reading the passages. The results showed that both using a finger as a highlighter and using a blue highlighter eliminated previously documented negative effects of preexisting, inappropriate highlighting. Further, metacomprehension was poor in the presence of inappropriate highlighting.     

Hedonic arousal, time intervals, and excitation transfer

Zillmann’s (1978, 1983) excitation transfer theory was tested in relation to arousal processes opposite in hedonic valence. Sixty female subjects, randomly assigned to six experimental conditions, were initially exposed either to arousal stimulation positive in hedonic valence (sexual humor), or to arousal stimulation negative in hedonic valence (insulting remarks), or to a neutral unarousing task. In each condition, half of the subjects rated mildly arousing positively valenced male models’ photographs on several scales either immediately or with a 4 minute delay following prior arousal. In support of Zillmann’s theory, subjects in the positive hedonic arousal condition gave significantly lower photograph ratings on the arousal-related scales at the immediate, than at the delayed, rating time. However, contrary to Zillmann’s theory, the pattern of these ratings was reversed in the negative hedonic arousal condition, with the significantly higher ratings at the immediate, rather than delayed, rating time. Also, there were significant differences in these ratings among all three conditions both at the immediate and at the delayed rating time, but, as predicted, no significant differences were obtained for these ratings between the rating times in the control unarousing condition. The differences in excitation transfer between arousal processes positive and negative in hedonic valence may be due to their differences on a temporal dimension with regard to the speed of accumulation and the speed of dissipation of each arousal type.     

Remembering personal change for better or worse: Retrieval context matters

We investigated how focusing on the details (experience focus) versus self-narrative significance (coherence focus) of valenced transitions informs appraisals and emotions at recall. Participants (N = 302) selected a negative or positive transition and rated their emotion. Two weeks later, they described their event using an experience or coherence focus, then rated emotion, event impact, self-relevance, and memory characteristics. A coherence (vs. experience) focus produced lower negative affect and greater psychological impact, particularly for negative transitions. The negative-coherence group showed the largest decrease in negation emotion over time. A coherence (vs. experience) focus resulted in less perceptual detail, reactivity, and re-experiencing. Positive (vs. negative) events were deemed more central to identity and connected to other events. Mental focus informed psychological impact and negative affect, while event valence influenced self-relevance. These findings remained when event type (interpersonal) was matched across groups. Motives for framing autobiographical memories and implications for adaptive self-reflection are discussed.