Abstract
Few studies have examined mood state-dependent retention—the notion that when the affective states accompanying learning and remembering are the same, information will be retained better than when they differ. Three experiments were conducted to examine state-dependent retention using a simple mood induction procedure and an unselected population of college students. Self-statements developed by Velten (1968) were chosen to influence subjects to feel somewhat depressed or elated or to experience no mood change. A 2 ×2 experimental design, incorporating a single word list and varying the mood conditions present during learning and later testing, was used in each of the first two experiments, neither of which revealed state dependence. However, a significant effect was found in the third experiment, which employed an interference paradigm. Subjects learned two lists of words under differing mood conditions. Testing was conducted under one of two mood conditions, elation or depression. Methodological issues and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
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This article is based on the first author's M. A. thesis, conducted under the supervision of the second author. A preliminary report of these data was made at the 1981 meetings of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York. The authors would like to express their thanks to Christian W. Mueller for his assistance in the completion of this research. Research support was provided by NIAAA Grant 5-R01-AA03141 to S. A. Lisman and N. E. Spear.
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Schare, M.L., Lisman, S.A. & Spear, N.E. The effects of mood variation on state-dependent retention. Cogn Ther Res 8, 387–407 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173313
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173313