Visual false memories in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

There is an ongoing debate whether or not patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more prone to produce false memories. The present study investigated this question using a visual variant of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, additionally addressing underlying mechanisms of false memory production (e.g., depression, dissociation, emotional valence, arousal). The visual paradigm was administered to 48 traumatized individuals with (n=20) and without PTSD (n=28) and 28 non-traumatized controls. Groups did not differ with regard to memory performance and memory confidence. False memories were correlated with depression. We recommend that future studies employ trauma-related material to further explore memory aberrations in PTSD.