Smells Ring Bells

Smell is the sense most closely linked to memory. Studies have shown that people can remember smells with 65% accuracy after one year, while visual recall is about 50% after three months.

We’ve all been there. Whether it’s the waft of warm pastry from your mother’s apple pie or the stench of the portable loos at a music festival, the power of smell can instantly transport you back to a definite place and time. This is called the ‘Proustian phenomenon’, which proposes that distinctive smells have more power than any other sense to help us recall times past. Seek out Marcel Proust’s novel In Search Of Lost Time for the full story.

Can you match the smell with the most popular memory?