Elevated false recollection of emotional pictures in young and older adults.
Current theories predict opposing effects of emotionally arousing information on false memory. If emotion enhances true recollection, then false recollection might be lower for emotional than for neutral pictures. However, if emotion enhances conceptual relatedness, then false recollection might increase for nonstudied but emotionally related pictures. We contrasted these 2 factors in young and older adults, using the International Affective Pictures Systems set (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2005). Although both age groups used recollection in our task, false recollection was greatest for emotional pictures, supporting a conceptual relatedness account. Finally, even after accuracy differences were controlled, age was related to high-confidence false recollection of emotional pictures.
Gallo
David A
DA
Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. dgallo@uchicago.edu
Foster
Katherine T
KT
Johnson
Elizabeth L
EL
D000339:Affect; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult