The effect of post-learning rest on false memory

Abstract

Like sleep, a brief period of eyes-closed waking rest following encoding can improve memory. But in addition to quantitatively strengthening memory, sleep also qualitatively transforms memory. In one example of this effect, sleep has been reported to promote the formation of false memory, perhaps as a result of preferentially strengthening gist memory over memory for veridical detail. Here, we tested whether a period of eyes-closed waking rest, like sleep, affects the formation of false memories. We hypothesized that rest would increase false memory in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm as measured by recall but would decrease false memory as measured by recognition. Following auditory encoding of 8 DRM word lists, N = 51 participants either sat quietly with their eyes closed for 15 min or spent an equivalent period completing a distractor task (within-subjects). Afterwards, participants completed a recall and recognition test. Despite being well-powered to detect effects of the magnitude previously reported in sleep studies, we did not detect any effect of rest on the formation of false memories, regardless of testing method. This may indicate that waking rest does not affect the formation of false memories in the same way that sleep does.