Violent false memories and engagement in aggressive and delinquent behavior: An investigation in adolescents

The present study investigates the relationship between violent false memories and delinquent and aggressive behavior in a sample of adolescents. Two hundred eleven participants completed measures of aggressive and delinquent behavior and performed a modified version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm, a false memory task for lists of associated words. Participants were presented with a list of ambiguously violent words and three lists of neutral words. For each list a free recall task was performed. Violent false memories were significantly associated with delinquent behaviors in both genders, whereas a significant correlation with aggressive behaviors was found only in males. A multilevel multiple regression showed that the prediction of delinquent behaviors was improved by entering violent false memories into the model as a further predictor, whereas no effect was found for aggressive behaviors. These findings indicate a significant association of violent false memories with delinquent behavior in adolescents.