[Mood congruent effects by music on word cognition]

Two studies investigated the mood congruent effects of music on word cognition. In both studies, bright or sad music was used in order to induce elated or depressed mood, and subjects were assigned to either the bright or the sad music condition. In Study 1, positive and negative personality trait words and non-words were presented with the music to examine the effect on incidental recall. Thirty-one subjects were asked to judge whether the words were positive or negative as quickly and accurately as possible. In Study 2, 37 subjects were presented with ambiguous personality trait words without and with music to examine how their interpretations of ambiguous stimuli were affected by music. The results showed the mood congruent effects on recall, interpretation, and response time, and these findings agreed with those obtained from other studies of the mood effects on cognition, especially on recall. It was suggested that music induces a certain mood, which influences on cognitive processes of other stimuli.