Evidence for the role of affect in mood congruent recall of autobiographic memories

Abstract

In the present study we test the hypothesis that the effect of mood congruence in autobiographical recall is underlain by affective state. Fifty-one participants were subjected to positive and negative mood inductions, and then asked to recall one personal memory. One half of the participants was in a condition that mirrored a hot (standard) mood induction procedure and the other half was in a condition that mirrored the so-called cold-mood induction procedure, which involved a more descriptive focus on mood inducing stimuli, expected to reduce affect induction. We replicated the congruence effect between the mood inductions and the valence of the participants’ recalled memories. Although participants in different conditions were exposed to the same semantic material, only hot mood induction congruently influenced autobiographical recall. Furthermore, this effect was mediated by mood, as measured by the self-report questionnaire. The results suggest that affect influences the mood congruence effect in a way that cannot be explained by semantic priming alone.