We examined the effect of memory instructions on false memory using the Deese/Roediger–McDermott paradigm in second-language learners. Participants studied lists of words in L1 and L2 (e.g., note, sound, piano…) associatively related to a non-presented critical lure (e.g., MUSIC). In a later recognition test, critical lures appeared in the same or the other language of their lists (i.e., within- and between-language conditions). In Experiment 1, participants should only endorse an item when study and test languages matched (i.e., restrictive instructions); that is, they should retrieve language information. In Experiment 2, participants should endorse studied items regardless of the language (i.e., inclusive instructions). With restrictive instructions, false recognition was higher in within- than between-language conditions, whereas with inclusive instructions, this result was replicated only when words were studied in L1, but not L2. Results suggested that second-language learners show false memory in their L2 and that the effect of language shift on false recognition depended on the study language.

An episodic memory experiment was conducted to examine whether “conceptual metaphors” influence how metaphorical expressions are processed and encoded into memory. Forty Chinese–English bilinguals read lists of expressions in their L1 and L2. The data revealed that after reading a series of metaphorical expressions based on the same underlying conceptual metaphor, participants falsely recognized new sentences that instantiated the same conceptual metaphor mapping more often than control sentences that did not share this mapping. This false memory effect was robust in both participants’ L1 and L2, with the only difference between languages being that participants showed more memory errors for literal sentences related to the source domain of the conceptual metaphors when reading in their second language (i.e., English). These data suggest that although bilinguals can access the appropriate conceptual metaphors in their second language, they have difficulty inhibiting literal meaning when processing metaphorical statements.

When participants process a list of semantically strongly related words, the ones that were not presented may later be said, falsely, to have been on the list. This ‘false memory effect’ has been investigated by means of the DRM paradigm. We applied an emotional version of it to assess the false memory effect for emotional words in bilingual children with a minority language as L1 (their mother tongue) and a monolingual control group. We found that the higher emotionality of the words enhances memory distortion for both the bilingual and the monolingual children, in spite of the disadvantage related to vocabulary skills and of the socioeconomic status that acts on semantic processing independently from the condition of bilingualism. We conclude that bilingual children develop their semantic knowledge separately from their vocabulary skills and parallel to their monolingual peers, with a comparable role played by Arousal and Valence.

This study investigated age differences in false memory for visual scenes and the effect of immediate recall on subsequent recognition. Eighty children (7–9 years), 74 adolescents (14–16 years), 92 young adults (19–26 years) and 82 older adults (50–80 years) studied four visual scenes and then took a recognition test after either a free-recall task or a filler task. Results showed an age-related decline in false recognition for visual scenes, but this trend was eliminated when participants were asked to free-recall before recognition. Prior recall decreased false recognition in children, but increased false recognition in older adults. Across the lifespan, adolescents had the loosest criterion, children had the lowest false recall, and prior recall increased true recognition in older adults.

Metacognitive Training for Depression (D-MCT) is a highly standardized group program targeted at depression-related (“Beckian”) emotional as well as cognitive biases, including mood-congruent and false memory. While prior results are promising with respect to psychopathological outcomes (depression), it is unclear whether D-MCT also meets its goal of improving cognitive biases, such as false memories.

In the framework of a randomized controlled trial (registered trial, DRKS00007907), we investigated whether D-MCT is superior to an active control condition (health training, HT) in reducing the susceptibility of depressed patients for false memories. False memories were examined using parallel versions of a visual variant of the Deese-Roediger McDermott paradigm.

Both groups committed less false memories at post assessment after 4 weeks compared to baseline. Relative to HT, D-MCT led to a significant decrease in high-confident false memories over time.

The study presents first evidence that D-MCT decreases the susceptibility of depressed patients for false memories, particularly for errors made with high confidence that are presumably the most “toxic” in terms of mood-congruent memory distortions.

Objectives: Confabulations occur in schizophrenia and certain severe neuropsychiatric conditions, and to a lesser degree in healthy individuals. The present study used a forced confabulation paradigm to assess differences in confabulation between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Methods: Schizophrenia patients (n=60) and healthy control participants (n=19) were shown a video with missing segments, asked to fill in the gaps with speculations, and tested on their memory for the story. Cognitive functions and severity of symptoms were also evaluated. Results: Schizophrenia patients generated significantly more confabulations than healthy control participants and had a greater tendency to generate confabulations that were related to each other. Schizophrenic confabulations were positively associated with temporal context confusions and formal thought disorder, and negatively with delusions. Conclusions: Our findings show that the schizophrenia patients generate more confabulations than healthy controls and schizophrenic confabulations are associated with positive symptoms. (JINS, 2016, 22, 911–919)

The present study applied the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false memory paradigm to examine whether anxious and fearful individuals exhibit higher recall and recognition rates of never presented threat words than nonanxious individuals. In Study 1, 39 spider fearful individuals, 28 blood fearful individuals, and 41 nonfearful individuals learned four word lists associated with unpresented target words: “spider”, “blood”, “river”, and “music”. Regardless of whether participants completed only a recognition task or a recall task and then a recognition task, there were no differences as a function of group in the degree to which they falsely remembered unpresented target threat words. In Study 2, 48 socially anxious and 51 nonanxious individuals learned four lists associated with social/evaluative threat unpresented target words and four lists associated with neutral unpresented target words. Similar to the findings from Study 1, groups did not differ in the degree to which they falsely remembered target words. These findings add to an increasingly large literature suggesting that anxious individuals are not characterized by a memory bias toward threat.