Odor learning, recall, and recognition memory in young and elderly adults.

use of an odor learning test and the California Verbal Learning Test in young and elderly adults enabled comparison of age-related effects on recall and recognition memory. Assessment of odor identification further enabled study of which odor function (recall, identification, recognition) is most affected by aging, the odor functions' interrelationships, and predictors of odor recall. Results suggested that both recall and recognition were significantly affected by aging and that the odor-recall decline cannot simply be referred to poor identification. Very similar age-related effect sizes were found for the 3 types of odor functions. Finally, the combined ability to encode, store, and retrieve odors appears to predict overall recall performance (including its identification component) better than do identification and recognition.