False (or biased) memory: Emotion and working memory capacity effects in the DRM paradigm

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Memory Research

Background:

• False memories are common and can be influenced by various factors.
• Understanding the mechanisms behind false memories is crucial for cognitive science.
• The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm is a widely used method to study false memory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the independent roles of emotion and working memory capacity (WMC) on false memory.
• To differentiate between changes in memory sensitivity and response bias.
• To examine the influence of emotional valence on false recognition.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm with positive, negative, and neutral word lists.
• Measured memory sensitivity and response bias using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis.
• Assessed participants' WMC using the Operation Span Task.

Main Results:

• Negative critical lures increased false recognition rates but did not alter memory sensitivity.
• Emotion and WMC did not influence memory sensitivity for the DRM effect.
• Negative emotion significantly increased liberal response bias, leading to more "old" responses.
• Reaction times indicated faster acceptance of negative critical lures, reflecting the false memory illusion.

Conclusions:

• The DRM false memory effect is a robust phenomenon not modulated by emotion or WMC in terms of memory sensitivity.
• Negative emotion primarily influences response bias in recognition memory, not the accuracy of memory itself.
• The findings highlight the distinct contributions of emotional valence and cognitive capacity to memory processes.