Olfactory perceptual priming is resistant to aging and long-lasting

Anna Fusari, Psychology, UNED, Madrid (Spain)

Abstract
Previous work from our laboratory has shown not only crossmodal priming between vision and touch in young adults (Reales & Ballesteros, 1999) but also complete haptic priming in young adults, older adults and Alzheimer´s disease (AD) patients (Ballesteros & Reales, 2004). However, very few studies have investigated perceptual priming in other modalities such as smell and taste. In this paper, we present the results from a new study conducted to answer three main questions: 1) Does olfactory priming exist not only in young adults but also in older adults despite the well known age-related sensorial losses?; 2) does performance in olfactory priming as a measure of implicit memory dissociate from performance in explicit recognition; 3) olfactory priming will resist the passage of time and would it be still present after the long delay of a month after the previous study? In the study participated 20 young adults and 20 older adults that were tested in two occasions separated a month. The results showed significant olfactory perceptual facilitation in both groups and not interaction. Moreover, olfactory priming was still present after a month.

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