A Rose by Another Name? Odor Misnaming is Associated with Linguistic Properties

• DOI: 10.1111/cogs.70003
• Publication Date: 2024-10-23T07:44:51Z
• Authors: Thomas Hörberg; Murathan Kurfalı; Maria Larsson; Erika J. Laukka; Pawel Herman; Jonas K. Olofsson
• Keywords: Concreteness

Abstract Naming common odors is a surprisingly difficult task: Odors are frequently misnamed. Little known about the linguistic properties of odor misnamings. We test whether misnamings old adults carry information olfactory perception and its connection to lexical‐semantic processing. analyze olfactory–semantic content source naming failures in large sample older Sweden ( n = 2479; age 58–100 years). investigate factors semantic proximity target name predict how misnamed, these relate overall identification performance. also explore primary dimensions along which distributed. find that consist many vague unspecific terms, such as category names (e.g., fruit ) or abstract evaluative terms sweet ). Odor often strongly associated with correct name, capturing other features. People biased toward misnaming high‐frequency olfaction gustation. Linguistic their performance, suggesting processing facilitates identification. Further, constitute an space similar vocabulary English. This primarily differentiated pleasantness, edibility, concreteness dimensions. thus contain plenty knowledge.