Comparison of emotional and neutral false memories at short- and long-term tests.

This article investigates the effects of emotional content on false memories at both short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) delays using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Across two experiments manipulating attention at encoding or retrieval, results consistently showed that only negatively valenced word lists produced significant false memories at short delays (about 1 second), whereas false memories for negative, positive, and neutral lists emerged at longer delays (about 1 minute). Dividing attention influenced hit rates but did not significantly affect false memory rates. These findings support theoretical frameworks such as the activation-monitoring framework (AMF) and fuzzy trace theory (FTT), suggesting that rapid and automatic activation of negative semantic networks contributes to false memories in STM, while gist-based processing underlies false memories in LTM. The study highlights emotion-specific processing differences in memory and provides novel evidence for semantic-based false memories occurring within short-term retrieval.