Mood induction and the priming of semantic memory in a lexical decision task: Asymmetric effects of elation and depression

Abstract

A number of predictions derived from Bower’s (1981) associative network model of mood and memory were investigated by inducing elated, neutral, or depressed moods in different groups of subjects. A mood-evaluation checklist verified the success of the mood-induction procedure. While in induced moods, subjects performed a lexical decision task in which the target stimuli were positive or negative trait adjectives, neutral nontrait adjectives, or nonwords. As predicted, subjects in elated moods showed facilitated processing of positive target words relative to processing of negative and neutral target words. Contrary to prediction, subjects in depressed moods did not respond faster to negative target words than they did to positive target words. Following the lexical decision task, subjects were administered an incidental free recall test for the words presented during the lexical decision task. Contrary to prediction, the three mood groups recalled similar numbers of words for each type of word target category. The asymmetric effects of elation and depression on memory that were observed in this study and a number of other studies are discussed. © 1988, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.