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Emotion and executive functioning: the effect of normal mood states on fluency tasks
Janessa O Carvalho1, Rebecca E Ready
1University of Massachusetts, Department of Psychology, Tobin Hall, 135 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. jocarval@psych.umass.edu
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology
|May 14, 2009
Summary
Everyday positive affect (PA) is linked to better verbal fluency. Negative affect (NA) did not show a connection to design fluency, suggesting larger mood shifts may be needed for NA to impact executive functions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Affective Science
Background:
- Previous research indicates induced positive affect (PA) enhances verbal fluency and induced negative affect (NA) boosts design fluency.
- The current study explores the relationship between naturally occurring mood states and executive functions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the associations between everyday mood states (PA and NA) and performance on executive function tasks.
- To determine if naturally occurring affect influences cognitive abilities like verbal and design fluency.
Main Methods:
- Participants (N=74, mean age=51.19) completed self-report measures of affect and performed verbal and design fluency tasks.
- Correlational analyses were used to examine the relationships between mood states and cognitive performance.
Main Results:
- A significant association was found between positive affect (PA) and better verbal fluency performance.
- Negative affect (NA) did not show a significant association with design fluency performance in this study.
Conclusions:
- Everyday variations in positive affect (PA) may be associated with cognitive performance, specifically verbal fluency.
- Greater fluctuations or intensity in negative affect (NA) might be necessary to observe significant associations with executive functioning, such as design fluency.
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