Reminding and mood-congruent memory

Abstract

Earlier experiments found that happy or sad subjects learn more about prose materials that are affectively congruent with their feelings. This study asked whether this memory effect was mediated by selective reminding. Subjects induced through hypnosis to feel happy or sad indicated whether or not happy or sad prompting phrases reminded them of a personal experience; they also rated the phrase’s imagery. Later, free recall showed the mood-congruity effect, which related strongly to imagery ratings but only weakly to remindings. In particular, the differential recall of happy versus sad phrases was about the same regardless of whether the phrases provoked reminiscences. Thus, selective reminding is at best a weak contributor to the moodcongruity effect in memory. © 1983, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.