Retrieving positive memories to regulate negative mood: consequences for mood-congruent memory.

Several researchers have suggested that mood-incongruency effects are due to a mood-regulatory process in which people retrieve positive memories to repair negative moods. The present studies tested this idea by manipulating mood-repair strategies and examining their impact on positive and negative memory retrieval. Mood-congruent retrieval occurred when participants stayed focused on events associated with their negative mood; mood-incongruent retrieval occurred when participants engaged in positive reappraisal (when they reinterpreted events as having positive outcomes). The effects of these strategies on memory retrieval also interacted with personality traits related to negative mood regulation. Individuals high in such traits showed stronger mood-incongruent memory than did individuals low in negative mood-regulation traits. Discussion focuses on integrating mood-regulatory variables and personality variables into existing mood-congruency theories (e.g., associative network models).

[1]  C. L. Rusting,et al.  Interactive effects of personality and mood on emotion-congruent memory and judgment. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  C. L. Rusting,et al.  Personality, mood, and cognitive processing of emotional information: three conceptual frameworks. , 1998, Psychological bulletin.

[3]  S. Nolen-Hoeksema,et al.  Regulating responses to anger: effects of rumination and distraction on angry mood. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  R. Larsen,et al.  Personality and Cognitive Processing of Affective Information , 1998 .

[5]  R. Buehler,et al.  Negative affective states and the motivated retrieval of positive life events : The role of affect acknowledgment , 1997 .

[6]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Repressive coping: distraction using pleasant thoughts and memories. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  S. J. Catanzaro.  Negative Mood Regulation Expectancies, Emotional Distress, and Examination Performance , 1996 .

[8]  John D. Mayer,et al.  Mood-Congruent Memory and Natural Mood: New Evidence , 1995 .

[9]  R. Petty,et al.  Personality moderators of mood congruency effects on cognition: the role of self-esteem and negative mood regulation. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  J. Forgas.  Mood and judgment: the affect infusion model (AIM). , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[11]  R. Thayer,et al.  Self-regulation of mood: strategies for changing a bad mood, raising energy, and reducing tension. , 1994, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Joseph P. Forgas,et al.  The role of emotion in social judgments: An introductory review and an Affect Infusion Model (AIM) , 1994 .

[13]  R. Erber,et al.  Beyond mood and social judgment: Mood incongruent recall and mood regulation , 1994 .

[14]  S. Nolen-Hoeksema,et al.  Effects of rumination and distraction on naturally occurring depressed mood , 1993 .

[15]  S. J. Catanzaro.  Mood regulation expectancies, anxiety sensitivity, and emotional distress. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[16]  B. Fredrickson,et al.  Response styles and the duration of episodes of depressed mood. , 1993, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[17]  K. Mogg,et al.  Negative recall bias and neuroticism: state vs trait effects. , 1993, Behaviour research and therapy.

[18]  G. Bower.  How might emotions affect learning , 1992 .

[19]  U. Glowalla,et al.  Mood-congruent and mood-incongruent learning , 1992, Memory & cognition.

[20]  S. Nolen-Hoeksema,et al.  Responses to depression and their effects on the duration of depressive episodes. , 1991, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[21]  R. Larsen,et al.  Personality and susceptibility to positive and negative emotional states. , 1991, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  John Sabini,et al.  Mood and memory under natural conditions: Evidence for mood incongruent recall. , 1990 .

[23]  S. J. Catanzaro,et al.  Measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation: initial scale development and implications. , 1990, Journal of personality assessment.

[24]  Peter Salovey,et al.  Mood and memory: Evaluating the network theory of affect , 1988 .

[25]  J. Forgas,et al.  After the Movies , 1987 .

[26]  Christine Storm,et al.  A taxonomic study of the vocabulary of emotions. , 1987 .

[27]  W. Morris,et al.  Toward the self-regulation of mood: Theory and research , 1987 .

[28]  P. Shaver,et al.  Emotion knowledge: further exploration of a prototype approach. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[29]  A. Isen,et al.  Positive affect, cognitive processes, and social behavior. , 1987 .

[30]  P. H. Blaney.  Affect and memory: a review. , 1986, Psychological bulletin.

[31]  A. Isen,et al.  Asymmetry of happiness and sadness in effects on memory in normal college students: Comment on Hasher, Rose, Zacks, Sanft, and Doren. , 1985 .

[32]  Alton J. Volanth,et al.  Cognitive involvement in the mood response system , 1985 .

[33]  W. Nelson Francis,et al.  FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH USAGE: LEXICON AND GRAMMAR , 1983 .

[34]  R. Yando,et al.  Selective encoding and retrieval of affectively valent information: two cognitive consequences of children's mood states. , 1982, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Walter Mischel,et al.  Influence of affect on cognitive social learning person variables. , 1982 .

[36]  Stephen G. Gilligan,et al.  Selectivity of learning caused by affective states. , 1981 .

[37]  G. Bower.  Mood and memory. , 1981, The American psychologist.

[38]  A. Isen,et al.  Affect, accessibility of material in memory, and behavior: a cognitive loop? , 1978, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[39]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Memory and cognition , 1977 .

[40]  Allan Collins,et al.  A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing , 1975 .