The study investigates the memory effects of explicit and implicit negation used to inform about the absence of objects. Existing research indicates that negation can lead to incorrect recognition of negated objects as present (a negation-to-affirmation shift—NAS). Moreover, explicit and implicit negation leads to similar memory recognition errors. The current study broadens the scope of this research by including non-verbal recognition and free recall tests. In two experiments, participants were exposed to source material containing explicit or implicit negation, and their memory was assessed using a non-verbal recognition (Experiment 1) or a free recall test (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the quality of recall was not different between explicit and implicit negation. The results are consistent with accounts of negation processing that involve simulation-based representations. In a non-verbal recognition test, the NAS effect was replicated.
