Validation of the Maastricht Memory Recall and Recognition Task (MMRRT): The added value of including emotionally colored words

The objective of this article was to examine basic psychometric properties of the Maastricht Memory Recall and Recognition Task (MMRRT), which was designed to assess the influence of emotionally colored words on recall and recognition. One hundred eighteen Dutch adults participated. A recall task consisting of three presentations was administered. Fifteen and forty-five minutes after the recall task, participants completed a recognition task. The investigated dependent variables included the yes/no reproduction and recognition of a word, as well as occurrence of a false positive of a new, content-matched word. The validity of the MMRRT was assessed by evaluation of the known effects of age, gender, educational level, word length, presentation number, retesting (6 months later) and the primacy and recency phenomenon on reproduction. Using multilevel regression analyses for dichotomous outcomes, all these predictors were statistically significant and independent of each other. These results provide evidence in favor of the validity of the MMRRT. When evaluating cognition, the MMRRT seems to have similar psychometric properties compared to other memory tasks. Contrary to our expectations, emotionally loaded words appear to have a lower likelihood of being remembered and reproduced. Future research is necessary to shed more light on this unexpected finding.