Age-related changes in discrimination of unfamiliar odors

If odor perception involves mnemonic processes, differences in olfactory experience should affect discriminative ability. This was examined here by comparing discriminative performance in children and adults. Using an oddity test of discrimination, in Experiment 1 we tested 6-year-olds (G1), 11-year-olds (G6), and adults (A) on their ability to discriminate unfamiliar odors that varied either in quality (Q) or in quality and intensity (QI). G1 participants were poorer at discriminating the QI set, relative to G6 and A. In Experiment 2, we used an analogous visual procedure and confirmed that this age-related difference was olfactory specific. In Experiment 3, we repeated Experiment 1 but used an articulatory suppression task. G1 participants were poorer than G6 and A participants for both the Q and the QI sets. The implications of these findings for experiential accounts of odor perception and olfactory working memory are discussed.