Comparative Investigation of the False Memory Paradigm in COVID-19 Recovered Patients and Unaffected Individuals: Using the DRM test

Abstract

People who have experienced COVID-19 have reported several psychophysiological effects following their recovery from the illness. Some of the psychological complications seem to stem from a phenomenon named brain fog which might interfere with the psychological processes that underlie the process of memory encoding and recall (Hellmuth et al., 2021). Memory is one of the most fundamental cognitive neuropsychological processes that aid human function. This paper presents data from a sample of 80 participants aged 18-26, which includes 40 participants who have been exposed to COVID-19 and 40 unaffected individuals, to examine the differences in their performance in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm between the participants from the two groups, testing the extent of false memory in them. The data from the two groups would be subjected to tests of mean difference after testing for normality and SPSS-20 would be used for the statistical analysis for this study. Results would be discussed in the full-length paper and the findings will help us understand whether there is a contribution of COVID-19 infection to the formation of false memories and the respective direction. Knowing and understanding this phenomenon might make healthcare providers and other people more understanding of the long-term complications post-recovery.