Emotion and false memory: The context–content paradox.

Abstract

False memories are influenced by a variety of factors, but emotion is a variable of special significance, for theoretical and practical reasons. Interestingly, emotion's effects on false memory depend on whether it is embedded in the content of to-be-remembered events or in our moods, where mood is an aspect of the context in which events are encoded. We sketch the theoretical basis for this content-context dissociation and then review accumulated evidence that content and context effects are indeed different. Paradoxically, we find that in experiments on spontaneous and implanted false memories, negatively valenced content foments distortion, but negatively valenced moods protect against it. In addition, correlational data show that enduring negative natural moods (e.g., depression) foment false memory. Current opponent-process models of false memory, such as fuzzy-trace theory, are able to explain the content-context dissociation: Variations in emotional content primarily affect memory for the gist of events, whereas variations in emotional context primarily affect memory for events' exact verbatim form. Important questions remain about how these effects are modulated by variations in memory tests and in arousal. Promising methods of tackling those questions are outlined, especially designs that separate the gist and verbatim influences of emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record

Are children better witnesses than adolescents? Developmental trends in different false memory paradigms

“…In this case, our results showed that negative words were more prominent during free recall than neutral ones. These results are not in line with what is stated on this matter in earlier work (see Bookbinder & Brainerd, 2016;Talmi, Luk, McGarry, & Moscovitch, 2007). In Otgaar and colleagues (2008), for instance, 7-year-olds heard two true and one false story about their school experiences.…”

If You're Happy and You Know It: Positive Moods Reduce Age‐Related Differences in False Memory

“…In addition, the difference between the present findings and prior research might also be due to arousal caused by the emotional content of the word lists. Arousal of emotional word lists was well controlled in the present study; however, in some prior studies, arousal has often been confounded with valence (for review, see Bookbinder & Brainerd, ). Prior research has indicated that once the arousal level of emotional word lists is controlled across list valence, developmental reversals for positive or neutral word lists tend to be less pronounced than for negative word lists (Brainerd et al., ), a finding that is consistent with the results of the present study.…”

“…Again, this difference is likely due to differences in arousal levels across studies. Prior research has shown that valence and arousal have different effects on false memories (Brainerd et al., ; Bookbinder & Brainerd, ; Corson & Verrier, ). In the present study, we strictly controlled arousal across moods, whereas in prior research, arousal has often been confounded with valence (e.g., Storbeck & Clore, ).…”

Consequences of False Memories in Eyewitness Testimony: A Review and Implications for Chinese Legal Practice

“…1 | No. 1 summarized in this section, one can conclude that both negative valence and high arousal enhance the generation of false memories (Bookbinder & Brainerd, 2016;Kaplan, Van Damme, Levine, & Loftus, 2016). …”