In 1913, French author Marcel Proust highlighted the link between smell and memory in a very eloquent-if-wordy way in his famous (and lengthy) work, Remembrances of Things Past. Here's a good snippet:
I couldn't find explicitly if bad smells make only bad memories stronger. I mean, from the first caption from the first image: what good it does too remember a beautiful beach if it will evoke a bad feeling from the bad smell from the trash bin?
Anecdotally, it doesn't work that way. I've never thought about a visual experience and had it evoke the memory of a smell. I'm not sure I've ever had anything (other than a smell) evoke the memory of a smell. But every strong smell evokes a cascade of experiential and visual memories. Whenever I smell burning garbage, I think about various places I've traveled, particularly India (this isn't a dig at Indian sanitation per se; it's just that there are small piles of burning garbage all over the place in India, and the memory is strongly attached).
I believe it, I remember some subway trips from years ago very vividly.
IIRC any intense emotions and strong feelings cause strong memories.
This recalls the Black Mirror episode Crocodile, where smell is used to jog memories. That was one of the less realistic ones.
I can get behind this theory. Some of the most memorable code I've seen is also the smelliest.
So...eat cheese the night of your study cram? (Bad idea if you're lactose intolerant)
You might need to bring the cheese with you to the test.
well... you'd get double the stimulus if you are lactose intolerant
I wonder what if eating fish increases memorising ability comes from fish smell.
You're assuming fish smells bad. Fresh fish smells delicious.
Depends on the time. In the early morning, not so much.