Relations of mood states with types of typical cognitive failure in every life: a diary study

Over a 2-wk. period, 19 volunteers kept structured diaries in which they recorded the contents of naturally occurring cognitive failures, including the hour and date of occurrence, attentional state, and mood state. 36 volunteers who were controls completed a written description of their activity 10 min. prior to the onset as well as account of their moods and attentional states during their occurrence. The recorded cognitive failures were independently classified into three types (perceptual/attentional failures, memory failures, and action failures) by two judges. Each type had a different peak of occurrence over the course of the day. Perceptual/attentional failures and memory failures occurred when the volunteers were in a preoccupied state. The state when every type of cognitive failure occurred was a suppressed mood state with high arousal. These results were discussed based on resource allocation models.