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Null effect of mood as a semantic prime
1Department of Psychology, Emporia State University, KS 66801.
The Journal of General Psychology
|July 1, 1992
Summary
This study found no mood priming effect in semantic tasks, even when addressing prior criticisms. Results suggest a dissociation between semantic and episodic memory systems.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Previous research on mood priming in semantic tasks (lexical decision, word recognition) yielded inconsistent results.
- Prior studies faced criticism for mood induction methods and use of non-controlled processing tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate mood priming effects in semantic tasks while addressing limitations of previous research.
- To examine whether mood influences semantic processing under controlled conditions.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using refined mood induction techniques and tasks requiring controlled processing.
- Participants were categorized as happy or sad and appraised sentence content for emotional valence.
Main Results:
- No significant mood priming effect was observed for happy or sad participants appraising sentence content.
- Findings support the dissociation between semantic memory and episodic memory.
Conclusions:
- Mood state does not appear to influence semantic memory tasks under the controlled conditions of this study.
- The results reinforce the distinction between different memory systems in cognitive psychology.