Mood and recognition memory: A comparison of two procedures

Abstract

The Bower, Monteiro, and Gilligan (1978) interference-task procedure was compared with a simple learn-test procedure to study mood change and recognition memory for nonsense syllables. Half of the subjects learned one list while happy or sad (induced by the Velton procedure) and were tested 24 h later while in the same or opposite mood. The other half learned List 1 while happy or sad, learned List 2 24 h later while happy or sad, and were tested for recognition of List 1 after another 24 h, while happy or sad. Subjects’ mood ratings changed appropriately following either induction procedure, but the only significant memory effect was higher retention among the single-list groups. These results confirm previous failures to find mood-dependent-recognition memory effects, but also extend this failure to research using the interference procedure. © 1985, The psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.