The effect of a musical mood induction procedure on mood state-dependent word retrieval

The purpose of this experiment was to replicate and expand upon an earlier study by Thaut and de l'Etoile (1993) by examining the effect of a musical mood induction procedure on mood state-dependent word retrieval. Participants (N = 45) completed a 2-day testing procedure. On day one, participants read a list of adjectives and wrote down an antonym for each one. On day two, participants recalled as many of the antonyms as possible. During the testing procedure, participants were placed in 1 of 4 conditions: (a) mood induction at encoding, (b) mood induction at recall, (c) no mood induction, and (d) mood induction at both encoding and recall. The mood induction procedure included 3 steps. Participants first assessed their current mood state using a visual analog scale. They then listened to music for 5 minutes, determined the mood of the piece while listening, and tried to match their mood to the music. Finally, participants again used the visual analog scale to indicate their mood. Results indicated that participants who received mood induction prior to both encoding and recall were able to retrieve significantly more words than participants who did not undergo any mood induction. The results are discussed in light of the associative network theory of memory and emotions and the treatment of mood disorders.