Differential effects of induced mood on the recall of positive, negative and neutral words

Abstract

Previous investigations have consistently found differential effects of induced moods on the accessibility of personal memories differing in hedonic tone. Findings for effects of retrieval mood on recall of verbal material have been less consistent. This study examined the effect of induced mood on the recall of previously learned personality trait words. Trait words were presented in normal mood and recall tested in elated or depressed mood. More positive words were recalled in elated than in depressed mood. Conversely, more negative words were recalled in depressed than in elated mood. There was no effect of mood on the recall of neutral words. Subjects in whom the mood induction procedures had failed to affect mood substantially did not show differential word recall. Differential effects of retrieval mood on recall of verbal material can be shown, but the nature of the material may be important. It may be necessary for the material to have been differentially associated with mood states in the subjects's life experience. This suggestion is discussed within Bower's (1981) associative network theory of mood and memory, and the implications for models of depression are considered.

Mood and memory: Mood-congruity effects in absence of mood

“…The results of the two experiments supported our hypothesis that mood-congruity effects (Bower, 1981;Bower et al, 1981;Bower et al, 1978;Clark & Fiske, 1982;Teasdale & Russell, 1983;Teasdale & Taylor, 1981) can be produced by activating the subject's knowledge about a mood state and its corresponding behavioral pattern. Subjects who are instructed to behave as if they were happy remembered more positively than negatively or neutrally valenced words.…”

“…In many experimental studies the standard procedure is to start with a mood induction in subjects so that its effects on cognitive processes can be analyzed (Blaney, 1986;Bower, 1981;Bower, Gilligan, & Monteiro, 1981;Bower, Monteiro, & Gilligan, 1978;Clark & Fiske, 1982;den Uyl & Frijda, 1984;Teasdale & Russell, 1983;Teasdale & Taylor, 1981). These studies have reported mooddependent effects of two kinds: (1) Mood-state-dependent retention.…”

“…et al, 1978), mood-inducing statements (Velten, 1968) induced feelings of failure or success (Isen, Shalker Clark, & Karp, 1978), memory elicitation or posturin] (e.g., a happy or sad facial expression; Laird, Wagener Halal, & Szedga, 1982), and manipulation of self-esteen (Coleman, 1975). The stimulus materials used in these experiments were mainly verbal, such as nouns (Bowel et al, 1978), personality adjectives (Clark & Teasdale 1985;Isen et al, 1978;Teasdale & Russell, 1983) anc texts Mecklenbrauker & Hager 1984). The experimental material included informatior that was of a neutral, positive, or negative affective tone The dependent variable was usually the recall of positivt or negative items (e.g., words).…”

The interaction between mood and cognitive function studied with PET

“…The Velten procedure has been widely employed and between 30 and 50 % of subjects fail to experience a measurable change in mood (Polivy & Doyle, 1980 ;Teasdale & Taylor, 1981 ;Sutherland et al 1982 ;Teasdale & Russell, 1983). Mood induction with music is effective in a greater proportion of subjects (Sutherland et al 1982 ;Clark, 1983).…”

Words high and low in pleasantness as rated by male and female college students

“…Studies on this topic have investigated memory for words that have affective or emotional connotation (e.g., Anisfeld & Lambert, 1966;Bousfield, 1950;Broadbent & Gregory, 1967;Cason & Lungren, 1932;Levinger & Clark, 1961;Teasdale & Russell, 1983;White, 1936). A. S. Brown (1976) has provided a catalog of published studies reporting scaled verbal material.…”