The effect of mood on false memory for emotional DRM word lists

The effect of mood on shaping belief and recollection following false feedback

The current study examined how mood affects the impact of false feedback on belief and recollection. In a three-session experiment, participants first watched 40 neutral mini videos, which were accompanied by music to induce either a positive or negative mood, or no music. Following a recognition test, they received false feedback to reduce belief in the occurrence of the events displayed in some of the videos (Session 2). This was followed by an immediate memory test and a delayed memory assessment one week later (Session 3). The results revealed that participants in negative mood reported higher belief scores compared to those in positive moods, despite an overall decline in belief scores for all groups following the false feedback. Notably, individuals in negative moods exhibited less reduction in their belief scores after encountering challenges, thereby maintaining a higher accuracy in their testimonies. Over time, a reduction in the clarity of participants' memory recall was observed, which correspondingly reduced their testimony accuracy. This study thus indicates that mood states play a role in shaping belief and memory recall under the influence of false feedback.

Effect of emotional valence on true and false recognition controlling arousal

The aim of our experiment was to analyse the effect of the emotional valence (positive, negative, or neutral) on true and false recognition, matching the arousal, frequency, concreteness, and associative strength of the study and recognition words. Fifty younger adults and 46 healthy older adults performed three study tasks (with words of different valence: positive, negative, neutral) and their corresponding recognition tests. Two weeks later, they performed the three recognition tests again. The results show that words with a negative valence produced less true recognition and less false recognition than words with a positive or neutral valence, in both younger and older adults, on the immediate recognition test. This pattern of results was also found in the younger adults on the delayed recognition test, whereas in the older participants, these differences disappeared. Thus, when arousal is controlled, both younger and older adults tend to recognise negative information worse than positive or neutral information, but they also commit fewer errors. Results would suggest that the greater arousal commonly associated with negative stimuli, rather than their own valence, could explain some of the contradictory results found in the literature.

Dissociation and false memory: the moderating role of trauma and cognitive ability

The term dissociation is often used to refer to a diverse range of psychological symptoms, including perceptual impairments, emotional detachment, and memory fragmentation. In the present study, we examined whether there was a relation between participants' self-reports of dissociative experiences and their memory performance in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm-a laboratory-based procedure that is frequently used to investigate false memory. University students (N = 298) completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) and the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ). Participants were also administered a standardised intelligence test (Shipley-2), and they were tested in the DRM paradigm. Overall, experiencing trauma and dissociation, as well as lower levels of cognitive ability, were associated with higher false memory. These findings are discussed in the context of the activation monitoring theory of DRM false memory.

How does social distancing during COVID-19 affect negative moods and memory?

In the absence of an effective vaccine or treatment, the current best defence against COVID-19 is social distancing - staying at home as much as possible, keeping distance from others, and avoiding large gatherings. Although social distancing improves physical health in terms of helping to reduce viral transmission, its psychological consequences are less clear, particularly its effects on memory. In this research, we investigated the effect of social distancing duration on negative moods and memory. The relation between social distancing duration and both negative mood and memory errors followed the same U-shaped function: negative moods and memory errors initially decreased as social distancing duration increased, and then at approximately 30 days, they began to increase. Subsequent analyses indicated that memory errors were mediated by lonely mood in particular. Thus, short-term social distancing might benefit psychological well-being and memory performance, but extended social distancing has a negative impact on mood and memory.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Decreases Emotional Memory Schemas

Mood-congruent memory bias is a critical characteristic of depression, but the underlying neural mechanism is largely unknown. Negative memory schemas might enhance encoding and consolidation of negative experiences, thereby contributing to the genesis and perpetuation of depressive pathology. To investigate this relationship, we aimed to perturb medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) processing, using neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) targeting the mPFC. Forty healthy volunteers first underwent a negative mood induction to activate negative schema processing after which they received either active inhibitory (N = 20) or control (N = 20) stimulation to the mPFC. Then, all participants performed the encoding of an emotional false memory task. Recall and recognition performance was tested the following morning. Polysomnographic data were recorded continuously during the night before and after encoding. We observed a significantly lower false recognition of negative critical lures following mPFC inhibition, but no differences in veridical memory. These findings were supported by reaction time data, showing a relative slower response to negative compared with positive critical lures. The current findings support previous causal evidence for a role of the mPFC in schema memory processing and further suggest a role of the mPFC in memory bias.

Mood impedes monitoring of emotional false memories: evidence for the associative theories

In the present experiment, we investigated whether warnings provided at the time of retrieval would reduce emotional false memories in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. The provision of retrieval warnings allowed us to test specific predictions based on the associative theories (e.g., Activation-Monitoring Theory; AMT) and Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT) that have been used to account for false memories in the DRM paradigm. Participants were randomly assigned to either a no-warning group or a retrieval-warning group. In each group, mood-induction procedures were used to elicit a positive, negative, or neutral mood and participants were then presented with word lists comprised of positive, negative, or neutral words. Retrieval warnings reduced false recognition, regardless of the valence of the to-be-remembered information or participants' mood. Consistent with the associative theories' predictions, within the warning condition, positive moods yielded greater false recognition for positive critical lures, and negative moods yielded greater false recognition for negative critical lures, compared to neutral moods. These findings have important practical implications for our understanding of the effect of mood on memory.

The mediational role of distracting stimuli in emotional word recognition

Emotions are considered distractions that often prompt subsequent actions. In this way, the aim of this work was to examine the role of distracting stimuli on the relationship of RT and accuracy. In order to do that, a word recognition task was carried out in which emotional valence was manipulated. More precisely, a mediational model, testing how changes in distracting stimuli mediate RT predicting accuracy across emotional conditions, was carried out. The results suggest that changes in task demands should distract from the secondary task to the extent that these task demands implicate and affect accuracy. Moreover, the distracting task seems to mediate between accuracy and the target task under emotional stimuli, showing the negative distracting condition to be the most remarkable effect. Furthermore, neutral distracting latencies did not affect accuracy. Understanding the mechanisms by which emotion impairs cognitive functions has important implications in several fields, such as affective disorders. However, the effects of emotion on goal-directed cognitive processing remain unclear.