Mood induction and instructions to sustain moods: A test of the subject compliance hypothesis of mood congruent memory

Abstract

Laboratory mood induction procedures that enlist subjects' co-operation in creating and sustaining moods tend to bias memory toward mood congruence, but this phenomenon may be explained in ways that are not directly related to mood. One such account is the "subject compliance hypothesis" (proposed by Blaney, 1986). which argues that mood congruent recall is the result of subjects' attempts to maintain or boost their moods, not the result of the moods per se. To test this hypothesis, happy and sad moods were induced using the musical mood induction procedure, which enlists subjects' co-operation in altering their moods. After subjects had performed several tasks, however, they were told that they could stop maintaining their mood. When asked to recall autobiographical memories a minute later, subjects nevertheless exhibited mood congruent bias. This finding argues against the subject compliance hypothesis, and suggests that subjects' moods persisted without active maintenance. Implications concerning the nature of moods, mood induction, and self-regulation are discussed.

Research Methods in Cognition and Emotion

“…In fact, when cooperation instructions were omitted from a musical mood induction, Parrott & Sabini (1990) found evidence of mood incongruence in autobiographi cal recall. In a different study, however, Parrott (1991) instructed participants to cease their mood maintenance, and their performance nevertheless demon strated a mood-congruent effect in autobiographical recall. It may be that the subject compliance hypothesis holds true while participants seek to maintain their moods, but that once the moods are well established they resist self-regula tion for a time without continued efforts at mood maintenance.…”

Are you Concerned? Patient Testimonials in Medical Communication Affect Healthy Recipients' Emotions and Memory

“…Unexpectedly, the effects on memory, or more precisely the prediction of memory by emotions, did not occur for positive and negative valence as predicted by the associative network model (e.g., Bower, 1981;Blaney, 1986;Parrott, 1991;Rafienia et al, 2008). In contrast, it was only found for negative emotions in Study 2.…”

“…However, rather than focusing on the language or content of the health-related messages, we aimed at contributing to the understanding to the impact of affective responses to the messages. Regarding the impact of recipients' affective experiences on information processing, we base our predictions on the associative network model (e.g., Bower, 1981;Blaney, 1986;Parrott and Sabini, 1990;Parrott, 1991;Rafienia et al, 2008). The model predicts that human memory is coordinated as an associative network and the content that is associated in the network is often simultaneously activated.…”

Situacioni Činioci Afektivnog Stanja – Afektivne Promene Tokom Mirovanja I Indukcije Afekta

“…Ispitanici su bez specifične instrukcije o usmeravanju razmišljanja (osim izbegavanja brojanja ili pevanja) tokom 40 minuta slušali kompoziciju "Russia under the Mongolian Yoke" Sergeja Prokofjeva (muzika iz filma "Aleksandar Nevski") u duplo sporijem tempu. Ova kompozicija je jedna od najčešće korišćenih u zadacima indukcije negativnog afekta, a originalno je korišćena i u Teasdaleovim studijama (Clark & Teasdale, 1985;Clark, Iversen, & Goodwin, 2001;Parrott, 1991;Teasdale & Spencer, 1984;Wenzlaff et al, 1991). Takođe, istraživanja pokazuju da usporavanje tempa za pola brzine omogućava upešniju indukciju negativnog raspoloženja (Västfjäll, 2002).…”