Inferential false memories of events: Negative consequences protect from distortions when the events are free from further elaboration

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to investigate whether negative emotionally charged and arousing content of to-be-remembered scripted material would affect propensity towards memory distortions. We further investigated whether elaboration of the studied material through free recall would affect the magnitude of memory errors. In this study participants saw eight scripts. Each of the scripts included an effect of an action, the cause of which was not presented. Effects were either negatively emotional or neutral. Participants were assigned to either a yes/no recognition test group (recognition), or to a recall and yes/no recognition test group (elaboration + recognition). Results showed that participants in the recognition group produced fewer memory errors in the emotional condition. Conversely, elaboration + recognition participants had lower accuracy and produced more emotional memory errors than the other group, suggesting a mediating role of semantic elaboration on the generation of false memories. The role of emotions and semantic elaboration on the generation of false memories is discussed.

False Memories for Affective Information in Schizophrenia

“…(12, 51)], in reporting new pictures as old. Table 2 shows the mean proportions of causal and plausible errors.…”

“…Many studies sustain that false memories depend on semantic elaboration since false memories tend to increase as the semantic elaboration of to-be-remembered information increases (11, 12). Moreover, studies on text comprehension have amply demonstrated that when reading stories, people seek to identify factors that link characters and events [e.g., Ref.…”

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated that production of false memories is modulated by the emotional content of the stimuli [e.g., Ref. (12, 16, 17)] although effects are complex and contradictory. On the one hand, affective content reduces false memories since individuals tend to focus on affective content more than neutral content.…”

“…In particular, the decrease in false memories for affective information may be because false memories for emotional stimuli are encoded with more contextual details and thus facilitate the distinction between presented and imagined stimuli (18, 19). In fact, many studies have shown that affective content reduces false memories (18) and leads to monitoring accuracy (12, 20). …”

Children as Earwitnesses: Memory for Emotional Auditory Events

“…In a witness context, the stimuli to be remembered are often highly emotional in nature, rendering it important to investigate how earwitness testimonies of neutral material compare to the memory of emotional stimuli. Numerous studies have yielded robust results indicating that emotional memories are more detailed and more resilient to forgetting than neutral memories (Bradley & Lang, ; Mirandola, Toffalini, Grassano, Cornoldi, & Melinder, ; Putman, van Honk, Kessels, Mulder, & Koppeschaar, ). This is especially true for central aspects of an event, compared to more peripheral information (Baugerud & Melinder, ; Kim, Vossel, & Gamer, ; for a review see Christianson, ).…”