Abstract
Whereas the effects of emotional intensity (the perceived strength of an item’s valence or arousal) have long been studied in true- and false-memory research, emotional ambiguity (the uncertainty that attaches to perceived emotional intensity) has only been studied recently. Available evidence suggests that emotional ambiguity has reliable effects on true memory that are distinct from those of emotional intensity. However, those findings are mostly restricted to recall, and the effects of emotional ambiguity on false memory remain unexplored. The current study addressed both limitations by measuring the effects of emotional ambiguity and emotional intensity on true and false recognition. In two experiments, we manipulated valence ambiguity and valence intensity (Experiment 1) and arousal ambiguity and arousal intensity (Experiment 2) of Deese/Roediger/McDermott lists. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted for Experiment 1, Experiment 2, and the combined data of the experiments to separate the effects of emotional ambiguity and emotional intensity. Our results showed that both valence ambiguity and arousal ambiguity improved true recognition, and the effects of valence ambiguity remained robust even when controlling for valence intensity, arousal intensity, and arousal ambiguity. More importantly, for both valence and arousal, there was an interaction between ambiguity and intensity in false memory. Specifically, we found that valence ambiguity increased false recognition with positive valence, while arousal ambiguity amplified the effect of arousal intensity on false recognition. Our results are discussed in the context of the emotional ambiguity hypothesis and fuzzy-trace theory.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data and materials are available online (https://osf.io/4bw9a/).
Code availability
Available upon request to the first author.
References
Adelman, J. S., & Estes, Z. (2013). Emotion and memory: A recognition advantage for positive and negative words independent of arousal. Cognition, 129(3), 530–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.08.014
Atkins, A. S., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. A. (2011). Neural mechanisms of semantic interference and false recognition in short-term memory. NeuroImage, 56(3), 1726–1734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.02.048
Bates, D., Mächler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67, 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
Bookbinder, S. H., & Brainerd, C. J. (2016). Emotion and false memory: The context–content paradox. Psychological Bulletin, 142(12), 1315–1351. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000077
Bookbinder, S. H., & Brainerd, C. J. (2017). Emotionally negative pictures enhance gist memory. Emotion, 17(1), 102–119. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000171
Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1999). Affective norms for English words (ANEW): Instruction manual and affective ratings. Instruction manual and affective ratings (Tech. Rep. C-1, Vol. 30, pp. 25–36). University of Florida, Center for Research in Psychophysiology.
Brainerd, C. J. (2018). The emotional-ambiguity hypothesis: A large-scale test. Psychological Science, 29(10), 1706–1715. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618780353
Brainerd, C. J., & Bookbinder, S. H. (2019). The semantics of emotion in false memory. Emotion, 19(1), 146–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000431
Brainerd, C. J., Chang, M., & Bialer, D. M. (2020a). Emotional ambiguity and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001011
Brainerd, C. J., Chang, M., & Bialer, D. M. (2020b). From association to gist. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000938
Brainerd, C. J., Chang, M., Bialer, D. M., & Liu, X. (2023). How does attribute ambiguity improve memory? Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01343-w
Brainerd, C. J., Chang, M., Bialer, D. M., Toglia, Michael, & P. (2021). Semantic ambiguity and memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 121,
Brainerd, C. J., Holliday, R. E., Reyna, V. F., Yang, Y., & Toglia, M. P. (2010). Developmental reversals in false memory: Effects of emotional valence and arousal. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107(2), 137–154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.04.013
Brainerd, C. J., Nakamura, K., & Lee, W.-F. (2019). Recollection is fast and slow. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 45(2), 302–319. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000588
Brainerd, C. J., Stein, L. M., Silveira, R. A., Rohenkohl, G., & Reyna, V. F. (2008). How does negative emotion cause false memories? Psychological Science, 19(9), 919–925. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02177.x
Brysbaert, M., & New, B. (2009). Moving beyond Kučera and Francis: A critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 977–990. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.977
Budson, A. E., Todman, R. W., Chong, H., Adams, E. H., Kensinger, E. A., Krangel, T. S., & Wright, C. I. (2006). False recognition of emotional word lists in aging and Alzheimer disease. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 19(2), 71–78. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnn.0000213905.49525.d0
Calado, B., Otgaar, H., & Muris, P. (2018). Are children better witnesses than adolescents? Developmental trends in different false memory paradigms. Journal of Child Custody, 15(4), 330–348.
Champely, S., Ekstrom, C., Dalgaard, P., Gill, J., Weibelzahl, S., Anandkumar, A., Ford, C., Volcic, R., De Rosario, H., & De Rosario, M. H. (2020). Package ‘pwr’ (R package Version 1.3-0) [Computer software]. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=pwr
Chang, M., & Brainerd, C. J. (2021). Semantic and phonological false memory: A review of theory and data. Journal of Memory and Language, 119, Article 104210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2020.104210
Chang, M., & Brainerd, C. J. (2023a). The font size effect depends on inter-item relation. Memory & Cognition. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-023-01419-1
Chang, M., & Brainerd, C. J. (2023b). The recognition effects of attribute ambiguity. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-023-02291-5
Chang, M., Brainerd, C. J., Toglia, M. P., & Schmidt, S. R. (2021). Norms for emotion–false memory lists. Behavior Research Methods, 53(1), 96–112. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01410-7
Cortese, M. J., Khanna, M. M., & Hacker, S. (2010). Recognition memory for 2,578 monosyllabic words. Memory, 18(6), 595–609. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2010.493892
Cortese, M. J., McCarty, D. P., & Schock, J. (2015). A mega recognition memory study of 2897 disyllabic words. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(8), 1489–1501. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.945096
Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11(6), 671–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(72)80001-X
Craik, F. I. M., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104(3), 268–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.104.3.268
Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(1), 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046671
Dehon, H., Larøi, F., & Van der Linden, M. (2010). Affective valence influences participant’s susceptibility to false memories and illusory recollection. Emotion, 10(5), 627–639. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019595
Dewhurst, S. A., Anderson, R. J., Berry, D. M., & Garner, S. R. (2018). Individual differences in susceptibility to false memories: The effect of memory specificity. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 71(7), 1637–1644. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1345961
Dewhurst, S. A., Anderson, R. J., & Knott, L. M. (2012). A gender difference in the false recall of negative words: Women DRM more than men. Cognition & Emotion, 26(1), 65–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2011.553037
Duesenberg, M., Weber, J., Schaeuffele, C., Fleischer, J., Hellmann-Regen, J., Roepke, S., Moritz, S., Otte, C., & Wingenfeld, K. (2016). Effects of hydrocortisone on false memory recognition in healthy men and women. Behavioral Neuroscience, 130(6), 635–642. https://doi.org/10.1037/bne0000170
Flegal, K. E., Atkins, A. S., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. A. (2010). False memories seconds later: The rapid and compelling onset of illusory recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(5), 1331–1338. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019903
Flegal, K. E., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. A. (2014). Get the gist? The effects of processing depth on false recognition. Memory & Cognition, 42(5), 701–711. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-013-0391-9
Gallo, D. A. (2006). Associative illusions of memory: Research on false memory for related events. Psychology Press.
Gallo, D. A. (2010). False memories and fantastic beliefs: 15 years of the DRM illusion. Memory & Cognition, 38(7), 833–848. https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.38.7.833
Gomes, C. F. A., Brainerd, C. J., & Stein, L. M. (2013). Effects of emotional valence and arousal on recollective and nonrecollective recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 39(3), 663–677. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028578
Hellenthal, M. V., Knott, L. M., Howe, M. L., Wilkinson, S., & Shah, D. (2019). The effects of arousal and attention on emotional false memory formation. Journal of Memory and Language, 107, 54–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.03.010
Houben, S. T. L., Otgaar, H., Roelofs, J., Smeets, T., & Merckelbach, H. (2020). Increases of correct memories and spontaneous false memories due to eye movements when memories are retrieved after a time delay. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 125, Article 103546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2019.103546
Howe, M. L. (2007). Children’s emotional false memories. Psychological Science, 18(10), 856–860. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01991.x
Howe, M. L., Candel, I., Otgaar, H., Malone, C., & Wimmer, M. C. (2010). Valence and the development of immediate and long-term false memory illusions. Memory, 18(1), 58–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658210903476514
Howe, M. L., Toth, S. L., & Cicchetti, D. (2011). Can maltreated children inhibit true and false memories for emotional information? Child Development, 82(3), 967–981. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01585.x
Hunt, R. R., & Einstein, G. O. (1981). Relational and item-specific information in memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 20(5), 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(81)90138-9
Kensinger, E. A. (2009). Remembering the details: Effects of emotion. Emotion Review, 1(2), 99–113. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073908100432
Knott, L. M., & Shah, D. (2019). The effect of limited attention and delay on negative arousing false memories. Cognition and Emotion, 33(7), 1472–1480. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1556153
Knott, L. M., & Thorley, C. (2014). Mood-congruent false memories persist over time. Cognition and Emotion, 28(5), 903–912. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2013.860016
Mattek, A. M., Wolford, G., & Whalen, P. J. (2017). A mathematical model captures the structure of subjective affect. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 12(3), 508–526. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616685863
Meeks, J. T., Taul, M. L., Rice, R. A., Posey, Z. W., & Harper, N. R. (2019). Negative mood reduces negative false memories after a brief mindfulness exercise. Mindfulness, 10(12), 2507–2521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01223-6
Meusel, L.-A. C., MacQueen, G. M., Jaswal, G., & McKinnon, M. C. (2012). Youth are more vulnerable to false memories than middle-aged adults due to liberal response bias. Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 21(4).
Mickley Steinmetz, K. R., Addis, D. R., & Kensinger, E. A. (2010). The effect of arousal on the emotional memory network depends on valence. NeuroImage, 53(1), 318–324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.06.015
Monds, L. A., Paterson, H. M., & Kemp, R. I. (2017). Do emotional stimuli enhance or impede recall relative to neutral stimuli? An investigation of two “false memory” tasks. Memory, 25(8), 945–952. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2016.1237653
Moors, A., De Houwer, J., Hermans, D., Wanmaker, S., van Schie, K., Van Harmelen, A.-L., De Schryver, M., De Winne, J., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Norms of valence, arousal, dominance, and age of acquisition for 4,300 Dutch words. Behavior Research Methods, 45(1), 169–177. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0243-8
Murphy, N. A., & Isaacowitz, D. M. (2008). Preferences for emotional information in older and younger adults: A meta-analysis of memory and attention tasks. Psychology and Aging, 23(2), 263–286. https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.23.2.263
Neath, I., & Surprenant, A. M. (2020). Concreteness and disagreement: Comment on Pollock (2018). Memory & Cognition, 48(4), 683–690. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-019-00992-8
Nelson, D. L., McEvoy, C. L., & Schreiber, T. A. (2004). The University of South Florida free association, rhyme, and word fragment norms. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36(3), 402–407. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03195588
Norris, C. J., Leaf, P. T., & Fenn, K. M. (2019). Negativity bias in false memory: Moderation by neuroticism after a delay. Cognition and Emotion, 33(4), 737–753. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2018.1496068
Otgaar, H., Alberts, H., & Cuppens, L. (2012). Ego depletion results in an increase in spontaneous false memories. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(4), 1673–1680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.09.006
Otgaar, H., Moldoveanu, G., Wang, J., & Howe, M. L. (2017). Exploring the consequences of nonbelieved memories in the DRM paradigm. Memory, 25(7), 922–933. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2016.1272701
Otgaar, H., Peters, M., & Howe, M. L. (2012). Dividing attention lowers children’s but increases adults’ false memories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(1), 204–210.
Otgaar, H., & Smeets, T. (2010). Adaptive memory: Survival processing increases both true and false memory in adults and children. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(4), 1010–1016. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019402
Paisios, D., Nathalie, H., & Labeye, E. (2023). Addressing the elephant in the middle: Implications of the midscale disagreement problem through the lens of Body-Object Interaction ratings. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/aj9hq
Palmer, J. E., & Dodson, C. S. (2009). Investigating the mechanisms fuelling reduced false recall of emotional material. Cognition & Emotion, 23(2), 238–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930801976663
Pollock, L. (2018). Statistical and methodological problems with concreteness and other semantic variables: A list memory experiment case study. Behavior Research Methods, 50(3), 1198–1216. ://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-017-0938-y
Posner, J., Russell, J. A., & Peterson, B. S. (2005). The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 17(03). https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579405050340
R Core Team. (2019). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved June 7, 2021, from https://www.R-project.org/
Reyna, V. F., & Brainerd, C. J. (1995). Fuzzy-trace theory: An interim synthesis. Learning and Individual Differences, 7(1), 1–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/1041-6080(95)90031-4
Rhodes, M. G., & Anastasi, J. S. (2000). The effects of a levels-of-processing manipulation on false recall. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 7(1), 158–162. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03210735
Rodríguez-Ferreiro, J., Martínez, C., & Cuetos, F. (2019). Differential effects of negative and positive emotional content over veridical and false recognition in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 49, 109–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2018.10.001
Roediger, H. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1995). Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in lists. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21(4), 803–814. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.21.4.803
Russell, J. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 1161–1178. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077714
Scott, G. G., Keitel, A., Becirspahic, M., Yao, B., & Sereno, S. C. (2019). The Glasgow Norms: Ratings of 5,500 words on nine scales. Behavior Research Methods, 51(3), 1258–1270. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-018-1099-3
Shah, D., & Knott, L. M. (2018). The role of attention at retrieval on the false recognition of negative emotional DRM lists. Memory, 26(2), 269–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2017.1349803
Sharkawy, J. E., Groth, K., Vetter, C., Beraldi, A., & Fast, K. (2008). False memories of emotional and neutral words. Behavioural Neurology, 19(1/2), 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2008/587239
Snodgrass, J. G., & Corwin, J. (1988). Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: Applications to dementia and amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117(1), 34–50. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.117.1.34
Taylor, J., Rousselet, G., Scheepers, C., & Sereno, S. (2022). Rating norms should be calculated from cumulative link mixed effects models. Behavior Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01814-7
Thapar, A., & McDermott, K. B. (2001). False recall and false recognition induced by presentation of associated words: Effects of retention interval and level of processing. Memory & Cognition, 29(3), 424–432. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196393
Toglia, M. P., Neuschatz, J. S., & Goodwin, K. A. (1999). Recall accuracy and illusory memories: When more is less. Memory, 7(2), 233–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/741944069
Warriner, A. B., Kuperman, V., & Brysbaert, M. (2013). Norms of valence, arousal, and dominance for 13,915 English lemmas. Behavior Research Methods, 45(4), 1191–1207. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0314-x
Wiechert, S., Proost, D., Simoens, E., Ben-Shakhar, G., Pertzov, Y., & Verschuere, B. (2023). The effect of negative valence on false memory formation in the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm: A preregistered meta-analysis and preregistered replication. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001527
Yeh, L.-H., & Lu, A. (2019). Association of trait mindfulness with the false recognition of emotional words in bilinguals. International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology, 8(2), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsp.2019.4009
Yüvrük, E., & Kapucu, A. (2022). False (or biased) memory: Emotion and working memory capacity effects in the DRM paradigm. Memory & Cognition, 50(7), 1443–1463. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01298-y
Zhang, W., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (2018). If you’re happy and you know it: Positive moods reduce age-related differences in false memory. Child Development, 89(4), e332–e341. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12890
Zhang, W., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (2019a). An age-related positivity effect in semantic true memory but not false memory. Emotion, 21(3), 526–535. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000715
Zhang, W., Gross, J., & Hayne, H. (2019b). Mood impedes monitoring of emotional false memories: Evidence for the associative theories. Memory, 27(2), 198–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2018.1498107
Funding
Not applicable
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Conceptualization: M.C., C.J.B.; Methodology: M.C.; Formal analysis and investigation: M.C.; Writing —original draft preparation: M.C.; Writing—review and editing: M.C., C.J.B.; Supervision: C.J.B.
All experiments in this manuscript were approved by Cornell Institutional Review Board. None of the experiments was preregistered.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
Not applicable
Open practice statement
All data and materials are available online (https://osf.io/4bw9a/). None of the experiments was preregistered.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Chang, M., Brainerd, C.J. Effects of emotional ambiguity and emotional intensity on true and false memory. Mem Cogn (2024). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01559-y
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-024-01559-y