Effects of induced mood on task performance

Recent research has indicated that people in a good mood tend to perform better on creativity or divergent thinking tasks and worse on tasks requiring systematic, analytic thinking than do people in other moods. Hypotheses regarding the processes underlying these effects can be grouped into those that propose that mood influences performance by affecting what is retrieved from memory and those that propose that mood influences performance because it affects the performer's motivation. The primary goal of the present project was to ascertain whether the effects were better accounted for by retrieval or motivational explanations. The tasks used in the experiments were the Remote Associates Test, on which performance was enhanced by a positive mood induction in previous research, and syllogisms, which are similar to tasks on which people in a positive mood have done relatively poorly in previous research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Melton, Robert Jeffrey

Contributors dc:contributor

• Clore, Gerald L.

• Psychology, Social

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1991 Melton, Robert Jeffrey

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9210915
(UMI)AAI9210915

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22733