Emotion and Emotion-Laden Words Differ on both Hits and False Alarms:
Insights from the DRM Paradigm
Kristen
Berry
1
Diliberto-Macaluso ,
1
College ,
2,3
Kazanas ,
Stephanie
Jeanette
1
1
Edwin Rivera , and Joelle Smith
Tennessee Technological
2
University ,
3
Altarriba ,
Emily
University at Albany, State University of New
Method (cont.)
Background
3
O’Brien ,
3
York
Results
Word Type
• False memory is the recollection of something that did not happen. The dominant procedure for
studying false memory of word lists is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott or DRM task (Deese;
1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995).
Introduction
• In the standard DRM task, participants are presented with a list of words (door, glass, pane,
shade, ledge, sill, house, open, curtain, frame, view, breeze, sash, screen, shutter) all related to
a nonpresented critical lure word (window) and then take a free recall or recognition memory
test. The typical finding is that participants falsely recall or recognize the critical lure word as
having been studied.
• Many researchers have identified a number of factors that influence false memory production.
Arndt (2012) reported that both backward strength (BSG) and forward strength (FSG) influence
lure errors. Other variables such as list construction, study modality, type of memory test, and
encoding context have been deemed important to producing or reducing the effect (see Gallo,
2006, for a comprehensive review).
• Recent research has examined how emotional content influences false memory, but the results
have been mixed. One reason for the conflicting findings may be related to the variation in
emotion word type of lists and lures, experimental controls, and procedures used across across
studies. For example, Pesta et al. (2001) found greater false recognition to unrelated lures than
to negative emotionally-charged lures with visually-presented DRM orthographic word lists. In
contrast, Bauer et al. (2009) found greater false recall to positively-valenced DRM semantic
word lists. Furthermore, Dehon et al. (2010) reported greater false recognition and recall for
postively- and negatively-valenced emotion lures using auditorily-presented DRM word lists
composed of a mixture of emotion and emotion-laden word types.
Methods
• The current study examined the influence of word type (neutral, emotion, and emotion-laden)
and study modality (auditory, visual) on true and false recall. DRM word lists and lures were
equated on a number of key factors known to influence false memory production.
Materials and Apparatus
• Neutral, emotion, and emotion-laden lists and lures were equated on the following variables:
• BSG = backward strength or target-to-cue strength – this is the probability participants
produce a similar cue in the presence of a target word
• FSG = forward strength or cue-to-target strength – this is the probability participants
produce a similar target in the presence of a cue word
• Word frequency
• Word length
• Concreteness
• Imageability
Results
•
•
Positive and negative emotion and emotion-laden lists and lures were equated on valence and
arousal.
Three random list orders were created.
Materials and Apparatus
• BDI-II – Beck Depression Inventory (retained scores of 0-13 for study) (Beck et al., 1996)
• STAI – State Anxiety Inventory (retained scores of 20 to 43) (Spielberger et al., 1983)
• 24 DRM Word Lists
• 12 words per list: 8 Neutral Word Lists, 8 Emotion Word Lists, 8 Emotion-Laden Word
Lists
• ½ of the Emotion and Emotion-Laden Word lists were positively-valenced, ½ were
negatively-valenced
• Study Modality (Between-Subjects variable)
• Auditory vs. Visual
• In the auditory presentation condition, sound was recorded and edited using Audacity, a free
audio software. The trimmed sound clips were converted using DMGConverter for Windows, a
free software program used to convert the size of sound clips that were imported into E-Prime
v.1.2.
• A Dell Optiplex 760 with Windows 7 Enterprise and a 15-inch Dell 1504 FP monitor were used.
Word Type x Valence
Figure 2a
Figure 2b
Procedure
• Participants completed the BDI-II and STAI prior to beginning the computer portion of the test.
Order of inventories was counterbalanced across participants.
•
Instructions appeared on the computer screen followed by a fixation “+” for 500 ms. List words
were presented (visually or auditorily) at a rate of one word per approximately 1.5 s.
•
A short break was given after List 8 and List 16.
•
The word “Recall” appeared in the center of the screen at the end of each auditory word list.​
Participants were given 45 s. to recall each DRM list. At the end of the study, participants
completed a short background questionnaire​. The duration of experiment was approximately 40
min.
Method
Participants
• 85 University at Albany, State University of New York students, 39 males and 46 females
• Mage = 19.55 (SD = 2.83)
• 40% freshman, 24.7% sophomores, 22.4% juniors, 11.8% seniors, 1.2% graduate students
• 48.2% White, 22.4% Black/African American, 12.9% Asian-American, 11.8% Hispanic/Latino,
4.7% other
Figure 1b
Figure 1a
Conclusions
Results and Discussion
• The p(hits) was greater for neutral and emotion-laden word lists than for emotion word lists
(Figure 1a). The difference in the p(hits) for neutral and emotion word lists replicated results
reported by Palmer and Dodson (2009).
Sample DRM Lists
• Sample Neutral, Positively-Valenced Emotion and Emotion-Laden, and Negatively-Valenced
Emotion and Emotion-Laden DRM Word Lists. Note. The nonpresented critical lure is at the top
of each list and appears in italics.
Neutral
Positive Emotion
Positive
Emotion-Laden
Negative Emotion
Negative
Emotion-Laden
chair
happy
baby
fear
jail
table
joy
crib
terror
prison
sit
smile
infant
panic
dungeon
legs
excitement
cradle
fright
convict
seat
laugh
diaper
scared
inmate
couch
ecstasy
bassinet
monster
cell
desk
wonderful
crawl
horror
sentence
recliner
funny
nursery
danger
handcuffs
sofa
giggle
rattle
snake
cage
wood
life
child
scream
captive
cushion
eager
carriage
darkness
crime
swivel
safe
formula
ghost
escape
stool
zest
powder
warn
release
• The p(FAs) was greater for emotion-laden critical lures than for neutral critical lures. No other
comparisons were significant.
• There was a greater difference in the p(hits) between negatively-valenced emotion and emotionladen words than between positively-valenced emotion and emotion-laden words (Figure 2a). It is
possible that negatively-valenced words were processed distinctively, thereby enhancing memory
for list items (Pesta et al., 2001).
Implications
• The proportion of false alarms was greater for emotion than emotion-laden words, which was
unrelated to valence (Figure 2b). Other studies have reported differences in processing between
neutral, emotion, and emotion-laden words. For example, Knickerbocker and Altarriba (2013)
reported a larger RB effect for emotion than emotion-laden and neutral words. They further
explained that emotion word types (e.g., happy, fear) have direct semantic associations to
emotion information whereas emotion-laden word types (e.g., party, war) are not emotional states
of mind and have only indirect semantic associations to emotion. Thus, since emotion and
emotion-laden word types belong to distinct word type categories, they should be examined and
analyzed separately.
References
• Arndt, J. (2012). The influence of forward and backward associative strength on false recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(3),
747-756. doi: 10.1037/a0026375
• Bauer, L., Olheiser, E. L., Altarriba, J., & Landi, N. (2009). Word type effects in false recall: Concrete, abstract, and emotion word critical lures. American Journal of Psychology,
122(4), 469-481.
• Beck, A. T., Brown, G., & Steer, R. A. (1996). Beck Depression Inventory II Manual. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.
• Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58(1), 17-22. doi: 10.1037/h0046671
• Dehon, H., Laroi, F., & Van Der Linden, M. (2010). Affective valence influences participant’s susceptibility to false memories and illusory recollection. Emotion, 10(5), 627-639.
• Gallo, D. A. (2006). Associative illusions of memory. False memory research in DRM and related tasks. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
• Knickerbocker, H., & Altarriba, J. (2013). Differential repetition blindness with emotion and emotion-laden word types. Visual Cognition, 21(5), 599-627.
doi: 10.1080/13506285.2013.815297
• Palmer, J. E., & Dodson, C. S. (2009) Investigating the mechanisms fuelling reduced false recall of emotional material. Cognition and Emotion, 23(2), 238-259.
• Pesta, B. J., Murphy, M. D., & Sanders, R. E. (2001). Are emotionally charged lures immune to false memory? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and
Cognition, 27(2), 328-338. doi: 10.1037//0278-7393.27.2.328
• Roediger, H. L. III., & 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. doi: 10.1037/0278-7393.21.4.803
• Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. L., Lushene, R., Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1983). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Palo Alto, CA:
Consulting Psychologists Press.