Mood, memory, and social judgments in children.
The influence of positive and negative moods on children's recall and recognition memory and impression-formation judgments was investigated in a two-list experimental design. A total of 161 schoolchildren, 8 to 10 years old, were presented with audiovisual information containing positive and negative details about 2 target children. Each presentation was preceded by happy or sad mood manipulations. One day later, the children were again placed in a happy or sad mood, and their recall and recognition memory and impression-formation judgments were assessed. Results showed that memory was better when (a) the children felt happy during encoding, retrieval, or both; (b) the material was incongruent with learning mood; (c) the 2 target characters were encountered in contrasting rather than in matching mood states; and (d) recall mood matched encoding mood. A happy mood increased the extremity of both positive and negative impression-formation judgments. Results are contrasted with experimental data obtained with normal or depressed adults, and implications are considered for contemporary theories of mood effects on cognition and for social-developmental research.
Forgas
J P
JP
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia.
Burnham
D K
DK
Trimboli
C
C
D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012938:Social Perception