| Abstract [eng] |
Tupikovskyte, M. (2024). The impact of emotions on the development of false memories. Master‘s thesis. Vilnius: Vilnius University, p. 78. In the legal process, understanding how false memories are formed and what influences their development is crucial. To avoid mistakes in making important decisions and to effectively interview witnesses after emotional events, we conducted a study to investigate the impact of emotions on the development of false memories and to contribute to further research. It remains unclear whether emotionally charged stimuli create false memories. The study aims to assess how emotionally charged stimuli affect the retrieval of false information. An experiment was conducted (n = 90; 62.22% female), with subjects randomly selected. The study used emotionally charged stimuli (short video clips edited and voiced by the researcher) and instruments including the V5 MESA Digit Span Test (see Annex 2) (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) questionnaire for assessing short-term memory, along with researcher-developed questionnaires. Results indicate a trend, whereby watching positive videos enhanced positive emotions and reduced negative emotions, while watching negative videos reduced positive emotions and enhanced negative emotions, and neutral videos reduced the expression of all emotions. The key finding is that emotionally charged stimuli limit information retrieval. This study is useful for further research on the impact of emotions on memory. |
