Effect of mood on lexical decisions
Clark DM., Teasdale JD., Broadbent DE., Martin M.
This experiment investigated the effects of induced elation and depression on lexical decision times for positive, negative, and neutral words. Contrary to prediction, decision times for mood-congruent words were not faster than decision times for mood-incongruent words. Following the lexical decision task and while still in an induced elated or depressed mood, subjects were given a surprise recall test for the words presented during the lexical decision task. Mood-incongruent words tended to be recalled better than mood-congruent words. Several possible explanations of these unexpected findings are discussed. © 1983, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.