[Mood congruency and incongruency effects on sentence writing]

This study investigated the influence of positive and negative moods on sentence writing. Short animated video clips, inducing either a positive or negative mood, were shown to 60 female undergraduates. Then, they wrote five sentences under one of two conditions: the sentences were to begin with "I" or "M" (a third person) as the subject. Main results were as follows: with the first person pronoun as the subject, the negative mood group showed a mood-congruency effect for the first sentence, and a mood-incongruency effect for the second to fifth sentence, with "M" as the sentence subject, the negative mood group showed a mood-incongruency effect for all the five sentences. The positive mood group showed a mood-congruency effect for all the sentences, regardless of "I" or "M" condition. Furthermore, under "I" condition, the students in the negative mood group reported their desire to change their mood. It is concluded that mood-incongruency effect on writing depended on the subject of the sentence.