Odor Identification in Young and Elderly Persons: Sensory and Cognitive Limitations

College-age and elderly women first sought to discriminate among common odors and found that the elderly persons failed much more frequently than the young and did benefit from corrective feedback with the true names for the smells.

Abstract

The investigation sought to uncover whether aging impairs ability to process olfactory information. College-age and elderly women first sought to discriminate among common odors. The elderly persons failed much more frequently than the young. Persons who achieved a high level of discrimination subsequently sought to identify 40 objects by smell and to use personality generated labels to name smells during repeated presentations. The older persons exhibited poorer ability in both tasks. Unlike young persons, the elderly failed to benefit from corrective feedback with their personally generated labels. Nevertheless, the elderly women did benefit from corrective feedback with the true names for the smells. Given enough practice with the true names, the elderly persons could possibly perform as well as the young. Processes that seem to facilitate identification include active encoding, active retrieval, and spontaneous use of verbal mediators. These cognitive operations seem compromised in elderly persons.