Gender and Working Memory Based Differences in Emotional False Memory

False memory (FM) has been widely studied using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm (Deese, 1959; Roediger & McDermott, 1995). The present work investigates FM across two experiments, focusing on emotional valence, gender, and working memory capacity (WMC). Experiment 1 tested the hypothesis that women would show higher FM rates for emotional word lists, using neutral, negative, and positively valenced lists, with both recall and recognition tests. Contrary to predictions, FM rates did not differ by gender. Experiment 2 extended this by incorporating WMC measures (RSPAN, SymSpan, and backward digit span) to test the hypothesis that higher WMC would be associated with reduced FM. While WMC was positively associated with correct memory performance, its relationship with FM was more nuanced. Higher WMC was linked to reduced false recall among women, suggesting WMC may buffer activation effects, particularly for negative stimuli. Across both experiments, FM rates were highest for negative lists but did not differ by gender. These findings contribute to understanding how emotion and cognitive resources jointly shape FM susceptibility and suggest that WMC may play a moderating role in emotional FM, especially among women.