This overview focuses on autobiographical odor memory and how information evokedby the olfactory sense may differ from memories evoked by visual or verbal infor-mation. Three key topics are addressed: (a) age distributions of evoked memories; (b)phenomenological experience; and (c) semantic processing. Current evidence suggeststhat memories triggered by olfactory information are localized to the first decade oflife (< 10 years) rather than to young adulthood (10-30 years) which is the typical find-ing for memories evoked by verbal and visual information. Further, empirical evidenceindicates that odor evoked memories are more emotional, associated with strongerfeelings of being brought back in time, and have been thought of less often as comparedto memories evoked by other sensory cues. Finally, previous observations of a signifi-cant impact of semantic influences on olfactory processing may also be generalized toretrieval of odor evoked autobiographical information. Specifically, both the age distri-butiorl and phenomenological qualities are affected by explicit knowledge of the odorcue. Taken together, the overall pattern of findings indicates that personal memoriesevoked by olfactory information are different from memories evoked by verbal or visualinformation.
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