Exploring the nature of wine expertise: what underlies wine experts' olfactory recognition memory advantage?

Abstract

To source the locus of the recognition memory advantage demonstrated by wine experts in a previous study [Chem. Senses 27 (2002) 747], we investigated recognition of wine-relevant odours as a function of wine expertise and type of encoding of the to-be-remembered odorants. Fourteen wine experts and 14 wine novices participated in tasks measuring olfactory threshold, odour recognition, and odour identification. Odour recognition memory was investigated as a function of type of encoding task, namely whether participants were required to identify an odorant or to judge an odorant in terms of its pleasantness. Wine-relevant odorants were sampled orthonasally by each participant in the semantic (identification), hedonic (pleasantness rating), and episodic (recognition) memory tasks. Results showed superior olfactory recognition by expert wine judges, despite their olfactory sensitivity, bias measures, and odour-identification ability being similar to those of novices. Contrary to a prediction that wine experts' recognition memory would not be influenced by type of odorant-encoding task, while novices' recognition memory would be inhibited by forced naming of odorants, both groups' olfactory recognition was facilitated by identifying odorants relative to judging odorants in terms of pleasantness. Ability to recognise odours and ability to name odours were not positively correlated, although novices' data showed a trend in this direction. The results imply that the source of superior odour recognition memory in wine experts was not due to enhanced semantic memory and linguistic capabilities for wine-relevant odours, but perceptual skill (e.g., olfactory imaging).