Positive and negative mood effects in children: the mediating influence of task characteristics

This study was designed to investigate positive and negative mood effects in children of different ages (younger children: n = 90, mean age 7 years 3 months; older children: n = 92, mean age 11 years 3 months). Children were asked to evaluate schematic drawings and photographs of ambiguous facial expressions after a happy, a sad, or a neutral mood induction had taken place by means of a mental imagery procedure. In both age groups, mood effects proved to be dependent on the nature of the judgment task. Positive and negative mood effects were found on children's judgments of schematic drawings, whereas the evaluation of photographs resulted in a positive bias only. The results are discussed within the scope of a multiprocess view of the relation between affect and cognition (Forgas, 1991, 1992) and a recent model on mood-sensitive task characteristics (Fiedler, 1991).