Under the C1 topic of "How to say to remind someone of something with the verb recordar", the question is:
El olor de esta comida _________________ mi ninez.
The smell of that food reminds me of my childhood.
HINT: It conveys something that is brought to her mind.
(Sorry, I can't type the tilde above the n).
The accepted answer is "me recurerda a". I think it should be "me recuerda".
This is the lesson:
https://spanish.kwiziq.com/my-languages/spanish/tests/results/783193/system?quick-lesson-popup=5
This is what it says:
The cases mentioned above using the preposition "a" are all to do with "finding some kind of similarity between two things or two people". This is when we use the preposition a.
However, there are cases when it still means "to remind of ..." but here the idea is that "something is brought to mind".