Effects of Mood Induction on the Recognition Memory of Word Types

Abstract

Substantially induced sad or happy mood was created through the use of the Velten Depressed or Elated self-reference statements. Emotionally pleasant words were then presented on the computer screen. 24 hours later, either the same or opposite mood was induced prior to the presentation of exact match, mood match, and mood opposite words. Reaction times were faster, and the proportion of correct responses was greater for the exactly matched words. Experimentally induced mood bore some relationship to the speed but not to the accuracy of recognition. The serious decrement of 40% was noted for accuracy for words with ratings of emotion similar to those of the training words. This decrement was based on false identification of the previously encoded words. This suggests that, although semantic memory is cognitively inaccurate, it is affectively accurate