Mood-Congruent Memory and Natural Mood: New Evidence

The mood-congruent memory effect states that happy people will better remember happy than sad materials, whereas sad people will better remember sad than happy materials (or remember such material equally). Clinical studies and those employing experimentally induced moods find evidence formood-congruent memory, but results from both types of studies can be explained by nonmood influences. Mood-congruent memory has not yet been found in normal people in everyday moods. The authors find evidence for the effect among normal individuals in three studies (N = 614). This supports prior experimental and clinical findings-and means that mood and memory constantly covary in everyday experience.

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