错误记忆是认知心理学及老化心理学中重要的研究话题。错误记忆的定义为个体错误地回忆出没有经历过的事件或者回忆出的事件与现实情况不符。大量证据表明错误记忆随着老化变得严重。模糊痕迹理论认为人们在对事件的记忆编码过程中，会形成与感知觉细节特征有关的字面痕迹和与语义关联有关的要点痕迹；字面痕迹的成功提取能够抑制错误记忆，而要点痕迹的成功提取能够促进错误记忆。老年人加工字面痕迹的能力下降明显，而加工要点痕迹的能力相对保持完好，从而导致其错误记忆增加。情绪是影响记忆的一个重要因素。关于正确记忆的研究发现了情绪的记忆优势效应，并且这种优势效应存在着不同效价的年龄偏向，即年轻人存在消极偏向而老年人存在积极偏向。然而以往研究在错误记忆上的情绪效应上未得到一致结论。其原因归根结底是对情绪如何影响错误记忆的认知机制尚不明确。总结以往研究，我们认为在对情绪错误记忆进行研究时有必要进行以下改进: 1)根据记忆的双加工过程，错误记忆可以由虚假回想（phantom/false recollection）或错误熟悉感（false familiarity）导致，因而有必要在错误记忆的研究中将这两个过程分离。基于此，研究1对简化的联合再认范式（SCR）进行改进以达到对回想和熟悉感进行分离的目的。2)以往研究在探讨错误记忆的认知机制时往往只片面地考虑个别认知成分。研究1使用多项式加工树模型的统计方法对错误记忆的各认知加工过程（记忆痕迹的提取和反应偏向）同时加以建模和参数估计，从而更好地解释错误记忆的发生机制。并且在研究1中设计了一个实验对上述方法进行有效性检验。26名大学生（女性13名，年龄21±2.3）完成了改进的SCR任务。在该任务中，被试在学习阶段对30个长类别图片序列和30个短类别图片序列进行学习（每个长序列包含7张同类别的图片，每个短序列包含1张图片）后完成一个再认测验。对再认测验的行为结果进行改进后的多项式加工树建模和参数估计，结果发现该模型能很好地拟合行为数据结果(G2（df=2）=3.89, p>.10)。此外，结果还发现与预期一致，被试对长序列中的图片有着更强的虚假回想和更强的要点痕迹，而对短序列中的图片有着更强的字面痕迹。这些结果表明改进后的实验范式以及统计模型能较好地描述和预测错误记忆及其认知机制。研究2旨在使用改进后的SCR范式及多项式加工树模型对错误记忆的年龄及情绪效应进行考察。在该研究中，28个老年人（平均年龄为67.95±4.70）与29个年轻人（平均年龄为22.60±2.74）先学习三种（积极、消极和中性）序列的类别图片（每个序列包含图片6张），然后完成改进的SCR测验。使用改进的多项式加工树模型对再认测验的结果进行建模和参数估计，结果发现情绪对错误记忆的作用有年龄差异，并且这种年龄差异仅表现在虚假回想上。具体而言：1）情绪会使老年人产生更多的错误记忆，其认知加工机制为：a.情绪（积极与消极）增强了虚假回想过程；b.情绪（积极与消极）增强了要点提取的相似性判断；c.情绪增强了对“旧”的反应偏向；2）情绪尤其是消极情绪会使年轻人产生更多的错误记忆，其认知机制为：a.消极情绪增强了虚假回想；b.情绪（积极与消极）增强了要点提取的相似性判断；c.情绪增强了对“旧”的反应偏向。这些结果表明年龄和情绪对错误记忆的认知机制产生交互作用从而影响错误记忆的行为表现。

In the area of aging psychology sustained attention has been being casted on false memory in which individuals retrieve events that either never happened or are not exactly the same with the events that happened. It is well documented in the literature that false memory increases with aging. Fuzzy Trace Theory (FTT) asserts that two types of memory representation——verbatim trace and gist trace——are formed and stored during the memory encoding phase. Successful retrieval of verbatim trace inhibits false memory, while retrieval of gist trace usually facilitates false memory. Literature documents an evident decline along with aging, in individuals’ ability to process verbatim trace, but no obvious decline in the ability related to gist trace. These changes in together contribute to the increment of false memory in humans’ late life.Affect/emotion is one of the most important influences to memory. A superiority effect of emotion has been well established in previous studies on accurate memory. Studies further found that the effect of emotion could be modulated by age. In specific, younger adults displayed negativity bias, while older adults showed positivity bias. However, consensus has not yet been reached neither on the effect of emotion on false memory nor on the cognitive processes underlying this emotional effect.To better understand the cognitive mechanisms underlying false memory, our Study 1 refined the methodology implemented in previous studies. First, false/phantom recollection and false familiarity, both of which contribute to false memory, were separated from each other in a revised version of simplified conjoint recognition (SCR) paradigm. Second, all the candidate cognitive processes (retrieval of memory traces, response biases and phantom recollection)were simultaneously taken into a revised multi-tree model to account for the underpinning mechanisms of false memory. An experiment was then conducted in Study 1 to investigate the validity of these revisions on the experimental paradigm and the statistical model. Twenty six college students (13 females; aged 21±2.3 years) were recruited to complete a revised-SCR paradigm. In this paradigm, participants learned 30 long (each with 7 items) and 30 short (each with 1 item) lists of categorical pictures adopted from Hemera Photo Objects system, and then completed a recognition task. And then the revised multi-tree model was used to estimate relevant cognitive processes. The results showed that the model fit the behavioral data of recognition memory quite well (G2（df=2）=3.89, p>.10). Additionally, in consistent with previous studies, the outputs of the model showed that participants had stronger phantom recollection and retrieved more gist traces and less verbatim traces for long-list categories than for short-list categories. These results indicated that our revised experimental paradigm, combined with revised multi-tree model, could well illustrate the cognitive processes underlying false memory, and thus could be used to investigate emotional false memory in older adults.Study 2 adopted the modified SCR paradigm and multi-tree model to investigate how age and emotional valence modulate false memory. Twenty eight older adults (aged 67.95±4.70) and twenty nine (aged 22.60±2.74) younger adults were recruited to complete the modified SCR paradigm. Specifically, during learning stage each participant viewed 60 pictorial lists (20 positive, 20 neutral and 20 negative ones), each with 6 objects belonging to a same category. One third of these pictures, mixed with 120 relevant/similar new pictures and 72 irrelevant new pictures, were presented to participants for recognition after the learning stage. The revised multi-tree model was then used to parameterize and estimate associated cognitive processes. The results showed that (1) in older adults both positive and negative emotions strengthened false recollection, retrieval of gist traces and response bias, leading to more false memory for emotional pictures than for neutral pictures; (2) in younger adults both positive and negative emotions facilitated retrieval of gist traces and response bias, but only negative emotion strengthened false recollection, leading to highest false memory rates for negative pictures. The results indicated that age and emotional valence interactively influenced the cognitive processes underlying false memory.