[HCIdivision17]

The effect's subtle. I read Wycoff's Mindmapping in high school, and have tried the techniques off and on. One interesting idea is that you're constantly making background connections, and these can play a small but non-negligible association in the mind. So if you always chew a minty gum when doing your math work, it helps a bit in bootstrapping you back into that frame of mind later, like smelling bacon sizzling and feeling restful from associating it with family breakfasts.

Whether it works or not, well, I think it does, but it's no panacea. I prefer to think of it as a hint to start preloading a frame of mind (like the Jargon File's second use of 'swap' [0]). When I sit with a second hand book that's got that mild musty wood and glue smell, it gets me in the frame of mind to read. YMMV.

[0] https://www.catb.com/jargon/html/S/swap.html