Tabu
Summer Teeters
PSY/103
September 15, 2015
Brian Hawkins

Tabu I remember it was one of the busiest shopping days of the year and just like many others, I was out and about with a list in hand, searching for those “oh-so important” last minute gifts for family and friends. Crowds of people were all around me, pushing and shoving their way to the next store all hoping to find a better sale than the one they just found a moment ago. Then it happened. I smelled it. It was faint, but I would know that fragrance anywhere. It was the smell of comfort, security, and love from my childhood; the wonderful scent of my mother. I stopped in the middle of the crowded mall and searched for the woman wearing my mothers’ perfume. I just wanted a glimpse of the person who had brought a flood of emotions and feeling back to the surface. I wanted to see if this person looked anything at all like the woman I missed so very much. With tears of joy and sadness flowing down my cheeks, I went to the perfume counter at the next department store and bought a bottle of my mothers’ fragrance: Tabu. Since that day, I have often wondered why certain smells can trigger such strong emotions and feelings. For as far back as I can remember my mother wore the same perfume. Whenever I caught even just a whiff of that familiar fragrance, I knew she was near. It has always brought with it a sense of calm and security. Even now, almost three years after her passing when I catch her scent, a feeling of comfort and well-being washes over me. This is a perfect example of classical conditioning, otherwise known as Pavalovian conditioning or respondent conditioning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning that occurs when either a conditioned stimulus or an unconditioned stimulus triggers either a conditioned response or an unconditioned response (Domjan,