EXPRESS: Comparison of Emotional and Neutral False Memories at Short- and Long-Term Tests

The majority of research on the effects of emotional stimuli false memory has used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm over long-term delays. Yet, results have been mixed, and studies have not yet considered effects of emotional content on short-term false memories. The present study examined emotional and neutral false memories at both short and long delays to both compare the results for short- and long-term memory and attempt to clarify previous mixed findings. A secondary purpose was to test the role of attention on false memories across these delays, as this factor has been found to influence emotion effects. In two experiments, participants studied 4-item negative, positive, and neutral DRM lists and completed both immediate, single-item recognition tests (short delay) and a surprise recognition test following all short-term trials (long delay). Attention was manipulated at encoding (Experiment 1) or retrieval (Experiment 2). A novel finding is reported which replicated across both experiments: Only negative lists produced significant false memories at the short delay, whereas all list types produced significant false memories at the long delay. Furthermore, both experiments showed that when attention was divided, negative lists produced higher hit rates than positive lists in short-term tests. However, attention condition did not affect false memories in either experiment. Results support both activation-monitoring framework and fuzzy trace theory explanations for false memories, but the finding of negative false memories at short delays is better explained by activation-monitoring views.