title: Mood-congruent false memories persist over time.
abstract: In this study, we examined the role of mood-congruency and retention interval on the false recognition of emotion laden items using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Previous research has shown a mood-congruent false memory enhancement during immediate recognition tasks. The present study examined the persistence of this effect following a one-week delay. Participants were placed in a negative or neutral mood, presented with negative-emotion and neutral-emotion DRM word lists, and administered with both immediate and delayed recognition tests. Results showed that a negative mood state increased remember judgments for negative-emotion critical lures, in comparison to neutral-emotion critical lures, on both immediate and delayed testing. These findings are discussed in relation to theories of spreading activation and emotion-enhanced memory, with consideration of the applied forensic implications of such findings.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , City University London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Knott
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thorley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: DRM paradigm; Delay; Emotion; False memory; Mood-congruency