The Proust Machine: What a Public Science Event Tells Us About Autobiographical Memory and the Five Senses.

Alexandra Ernst,Christopher J A Moulin,Virginie Voltzenlogel,Julie M F Bertrand,Céline Souchay

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.623910

Abstract

Our senses are constantly stimulated in our daily lives but we have only a limited understanding of how they affect our cognitive processes and, especially, our autobiographical memory. Capitalizing on a public science event, we conducted the first empirical study that aimed to compare the relative influence of the five senses on the access, temporal distribution, and phenomenological characteristics of autobiographical memories in a sample of about 400 participants. We found that the access and the phenomenological features of memories varied as a function of the type of sensory cues, but not their temporal distribution. With regard to their influence on autobiographical memory, an overlap between some senses was found, with on one hand, olfaction and taste and, on the other, vision, audition, and touch. We discuss these findings in the light of theories of perception, memory, and the self, and consider methodological implications of the sensory cuing technique in memory research, as well as clinical implications for research in psychopathological and neuropsychological populations.

Highlights

Since the late 1980s, there has been growing interest in the concept of autobiographical memory, the study of memory for one’s own life experiences
Studies of autobiographical memory lend themselves to large scale survey and public participation events, with recent examples being large-scale on-line questionnaires about autobiographical memory (e.g., Janssen et al, 2011) or studies examining memories cued by Beatles songs (Spivack et al, 2019), and data collected at Science Festivals (e.g., Alleyne and Carter, 2008)
We were motivated to share what was known about autobiographical memory in a participatory science event, the Proust Machine, and to harness the event to examine the particular relationships between the various types of the cue, and the resultant autobiographical memories

Summary

Introduction

Since the late 1980s, there has been growing interest in the concept of autobiographical memory, the study of memory for one’s own life experiences. Odor-evoked memories are associated with strong activations in the limbic and paralimbic cortices, as well as in the amygdala and the hippocampus (Herz et al, 2004; Arshamian et al, 2013) Another characteristic feature is that odors favor the retrieval of old childhood memories from the first decade of life (Chu and Downes, 2000; Willander and Larsson, 2006; Larsson and Willander, 2009; Miles and Berntsen, 2011), which contrasts with the typical reminiscence bump found in adolescence and early adulthood in autobiographical memory studies (Rubin et al, 1986; Rathbone et al, 2008; Koppel and Berntsen, 2015). Odor-evoked memories are generally less frequently rehearsed and less self-grounding than visual and/or auditory cues (Willander and Larsson, 2006, 2007; Knez et al, 2017)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion