Mood Dependent Memory - Literature review Example

Mood Dependent Memory The prevailing mood of an individual may affect the extent and nature of events that will be recalled. The memory effects related to mood are (a) mood congruence – where emotional material is remembered more reliably during those moods that match the emotional content of the memories and (b) mood dependence - where memory power is enhanced when remembered material has a neutral emotional valence (Lewis and Critchley, 2003). Three specific research studies on the association between mood and memory are examined below (Wright et al, 2005; Lee and Sternthal, 1999; Ruiz Cabarello et al, 1997), in order to assess whether mood dependent memory is in fact supported by these studies and what the potential implications of mood dependent memory could be. According to Roediger and McDermott (1995), when people are presented with a list of words that are semantically related and asked to recall the words, they will falsely report hearing certain words which were not actually presented – for example, the word “sleep” when presented with a group of words such as “bed”, “rest” “tired” “awake” and “dream”. The word “sleep” for example, is highly associated with the other words and is known as the “critical lure”. Another aspect that influences memory is disassociation where emotions and thoughts may affect memory and may result in cognitive failures.(Wright and Osborne, 2005) Wright et al (2005) conducted a study to examine two research questions: (a) who is likely to have a false memory? (b) How does this relate to mood, for instance if a person is in a negative mood, is he more likely to have a false memory? One aspect of their research included testing the impact of mood upon the memory performance by subjecting the participants to musical pieces and hypothesizing that this would affect the memory performance. The theoretical rationale for this test was the mood-as-input hypothesis put forth by Martin et al (1993). This hypothesis states that there is an interaction between the mood and the extent of memory recall which is determined by the nature of the task, especially where the question of recall of critical lures is concerned. This hypothesis suggests that when people are asked to recall as many words as they “can”, then those in a negative mood are likely to recall more words than those who are in a positive mood. This is because when they are in a negative mood, they may not be satisfied with their performance and feel that they need to keep recalling words, whereas those in a positive mood may be more easily satisfied with their performance and may stop with recalling fewer words. On the other hand, when participants are asked to continue to recall words as long as they feel like continuing, those in a positive mood are likely to continue for a long time while those in a negative mood may stop recalling words in a shorter period of time. The method used in this study included six groups of a 3 X 2 between-subjects design with participants being randomly assigned to one of the six groups. The participants were individually tested in cubicles. They were provided with headphones for listening to music and an experimental booklet which contained the information they would need for the study. They had to fill up some demographic details in the booklet, after which they filled out a version of the Disassociate experiences questionnaire meant for use in non clinical samples. After completing the questionnaire, the participants had to indicate their current levels of happiness, sadness, anxiety and arousal by marking it on a 10 cm line. The next step was listening to the DRM lists of semantically related words after which the participants listened to six pieces of music, each of two minutes duration. After listening to the music, the participants once again filed out the mood indicators, which were followed by a brief unrelated distracter task. The participants were then divided into groups. One groups was asked to recall as many words as they could, while the other group was asked to recall as many words as they felt like continuing. This entire sequence was repeated twice more with all the participants. The results in the study by Wright et al (2005) also showed that the mood-as-input hypothesis proposed by Martin et al(1993) appeared relevant and those participants in a positive mood were able to recall more words when allowed to continue as long as they wanted to and less words when asked to recollect all they could. However, since music was used in this experiment and the mood of the participants was gauged at every stage of the experiment, it established definitively that mood does impact upon memory performance. The most significant finding in this study was that the mood affects the extent of false memory and this is relevant especially in the context of use in therapy. When patients are recalling an unhappy childhood for example, they may be in a negative mood and pressuring them to recall more is likely to produce false recall, which will be lessened if the therapist requests them to continue only as long as they feel like continuing. Lee and Sternthal (1999) conducted four separate experiments to examine the impact of a positive mood on memory. These studies show that a positive mood appears to enhance the learning of brand names, as opposed to a neutral mood. Thirty five undergraduate students were selected and were randomly assigned to the four different experiments in groups of 4 to 10. In the first experiment, the participants were shown seven ads; of which one group had four humorous ads intermingled with three informational ads, which were geared towards generating a positive mood in the participants. The other group viewed a series of seven informational ads, which was geared towards generating a neutral mood. After this, the mood of the participants was assessed and they were shown slides containing various brand names. After a short distractor task to clear the short term memory, the participants were then given a memory test on the brand names. The results substantiated the finding that a positive mood enhances the recall of brand names while a neutral mood fostered a lower level of recall of brand names. Three more similar experiments were conducted to examine various aspects of memory and the overall findings in the study support the conclusion that a positive mood can also prompt relational elaboration. Where categorization of the brands was concerned also, recall was better among the positive mood participants. The results of this study were explained by applying Isen’s (1993) view that a positive mood promotes relational elaboration, since a positive mood not only enhances brand recall but also clustering of brand names according to their category membership and those in a positive mood were also able to recall a greater number of categories than the neutral mood respondents. However, the findings in this study arose in contrast to two other views that have been offered on the impact of a positive mood on memory. Mackie and Worth (1989) have suggested that a positive mood affects cognitive capacity by activating a vast amount of information in memory which thus results in a lower level of processing of actual incoming information, thereby hindering comprehensive recall. Similarly, Schwarz (1990) has suggested that recipients of information who are in a positive mood will not process information in detail because they will be included to view the situation as a benign one and this will not prompt them to process the information in detail. The views of both these authors therefore suggest that a positive mood actually reduces the level of recall in memory because fewer resources are likely to be allocated to stimulus processing. Another study conducted by Ruiz Cabarello et al (1997) showed that mood impacts upon retrieval of memories. In this case, the participants were forty five university students ranging in age from 18 to 23 years, with 21 men and 24 women. These participants were asked to fill out questionnaires designed to assess the emotional content of the thoughts and memories of the respondents. Respondents were asked to list their personal thoughts or memories and then assess how it made them feel, ranking their emotion on a scale. The results of this study showed that high levels of neuroticism in the students resulted in a tendency to recall less happy memories, and such personalities demonstrate that it is the process of negative information processing that is facilitated in the cognitive schema of such respondents. In general, it is their overall negative mood and pessimistic outlook that produces a higher recall of negative information. The authors of this study have also highlighted other studies which have shown that high levels of neuroticism result in a higher recall of negative information and this study is also significant because it points out that such a tendency to recall negative information may lead to depression in later stages. Conclusion: From the above studies, it must be noted that are conflicting results that have been obtained in terms of the impact of mood on memory. While the Lee and Sternthal (1999) study suggests that a positive mood improves memory, other studies suggest that a positive mood hinders memory recall. The study by Wright et al (1995) suggests that a positive mood may be helpful when participants are allowed flexibility in what they recall, while a negative mood may in fact enhance recall when maximum memory is called for. However, all these studies appear to suggest that mood dependent memory is supported. The study by Wright et al (1995) is especially significant in establishing mood dependence i.e, emotional material is more likely to be remembered when there is a neutral emotional valence. This has important implications in therapy because it suggests that a negative mood may in fact inhibit true recall and may lead to a tendency to false memory, if a respondent is forced to recall events with a negative context despite the existence of a negative mood. A therapist is likely to achieve much better results by bringing the patient to state of a neutral emotional valence which is more conducive to memory recall. In a similar way, the study by Ruiz Cabarello et al (1995) is also significant because it shows mood dependence, i.e, that neuroticism tends to generate a greater retrieval of negative memories. The study by Lee and Sternthal (1999) appears to suggest that recall may be enhanced if the respondent is brought into a positive mood and this is also partly borne out by the study of Wright et al (1995) where respondents can recall more if they are allowed flexibility in recall and their positive mood will bring about a greater level of recall. Mood dependent memory thus appears to not only be supported, but there are grounds to emphasize the importance of this phenomenon in therapy. Therapists may be able to achieve a higher level of success in treating patients by recognizing the impact of mood on memory and making allowance for it. Recognizing the temperament of neurotic people and their tendency to remember negative events better thus helps to also explain where there is a higher incidence of depression among such people and efforts could be made to promote a more positive mood among such patients so that their recall of negative events and memories will be weakened. It may also have potential in the field of education where efforts can be made to alter the mood of students before material is taught to them in order to promote better recall. References: * Isen, Alice M. (1993), "Positive Affect and Decision Making," IN “Handbook of Emotion, (Luis and Haviland edn), New York: Guilford. * Lee, Angela Y and Sternthal, Brian, 1999. “The effects of positive mood on memory”, Journal of Consumer Research, 26(2): 115-128. * Lewis, Penelope A and Critchley, Hugo D, 2003. “Mood dependent memory”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Elsevier, Retrieved February 4, 2008 from: http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/vr/Projects/Presencia/ConsortiumPublications/uc l_ion_papers/lewis_mood-dependent_memory.pdf * Mackie, Diane M. and Leila T. Worth (1989), "Processing Deficits and the Mediation of Positive Affect in Persuasion," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57: 27-40 * Martin, L. L., Ward, D. W., Achee, J. W. and Wyer, R. S. (1993). “Mood as input: People have to interpret the motivational implications of their moods”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64: 317-326. * Roediger, H. L., III, & McDermott, K. B. (1995). “Creating false memories: Remembering words not presented in list”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 21: 803-814. * Ruiz-Cabarello, Jose A and Bermudez, Jose, 1995. “Neuroticism, mood and retrieval of negative personal memories”, The Journal of General Psychology, 122(1): 29 * Schwarz, Norbert (1990), "Feelings as Information: Information and Motivation Functions of Affective States," IN “Handbook of Motivation and Cognition: Foundations of Social Behavior”, Vol. 2, (Sorrentino and Higgins edn), New York: Guilford at pp 527-561. * Wright, Daniel B, Startup, Helen M and Matthews, Sorcha A, 2005. “Mood, dissociation and false memories using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott Procedure”, British Journal of Psychology, 96(3): 283-294 * Wright, D. B., £ Osborne, J. E. (2005). Dissociation, cognitive failures, and working memory. American Journal of Psychology, 118, 103-113. Read More