Affective touch, affective congruency, and memory accuracy

Previous studies have shown that affective touch generates a specific response in a subclass of mechanoreceptive afferents and that, in turn, the perception of affective touch is topdown modulated by higher cognitive processes. This literature has contributed to the emergence of a scientific controversy on the role of affective congruency in the multisensory integration processes. In this experiment, we test whether affective congruency (consistent vs. inconsistent) between touch (affective vs. negative vs. control) and visual stimuli (positive vs. negative) can modulate memory (specifically the acceptance of doctored critical lures). Participants observed 18 images (9 positive) while an unseen, trained experimenter touched (or not, controls) their forearm with a soft brush vs. coarse sandpaper. After 20 minutes, participants' recognition was tested in an OLD/NEW paradigm. Elements from the original stimuli were presented either intact (original) or doctored (omission and commission errors). More memory errors were made in the touch trials, compared to no touch, and in congruent than in incongruent trials, suggesting that the effect of touch on memory is specific. Results will be discussed against most recent findings in the embodied memory framework, and practical implication of affective congruency effects examined for research and forensic practitioners.