Memory Accuracy for Emotional and Neutral Narratives: Investigating the Influence of Suggestive Misinformation on the Frequency of False Memories

Memory is a reconstructive process, impressionable and not always vigilant in detecting devices working against its accuracy. False memory occurs when memory for an event is infiltrated by new information or alterations are made to the information that was previously stored. The present study investigated the effect of emotional valence on false memory occurrence through the misinformation effect – memory errors that arise as a consequence of exposure to misleading information - by presenting participants with narratives in one of three valence conditions (negative, positive, neutral) and subjecting them to suggestive questions providing credulous misinformation following a one-hour delay. Results revealed that when collapsing across negative and positive conditions, overall false memory occurrences were significantly reduced for these narratives compared to the neutral condition. Some of the effects of emotion on memory accuracy were more pronounced for negative information than for positive or neutral information; response rates in the negative condition, as compared to the two other valence conditions, revealed an increase in hits and a decrease in false alarms suggesting negative valence enhances discriminability.