Affect, accessibility of material in memory, and behavior: A cognitive loop?

Mood and flexibility in categorization: a conceptual replication

The present study tested the hypothesis that positive mood facilitates cognitive flexibility in categorization, i.e., positive mood enhances the ability to categorize flexibly at broad and narrow levels contingent on task requirement. The study was a conceptual replication of the 1990 work by Murray, Sujan, Hirt, and Sujan. Unlike the original study, it was carried out on the WWW with some modifications in the procedure. Participants were 29 women and 132 men whose average age was 29 yr. They were put into a positive, negative, or neutral mood using the Velten technique. Mood was measured with standard mood scales. Subjects then listed similarities differences between two entertainment TV shows. Contrary to the prediction, participants in a positive mood did not list a higher number, more diverse, or more unusual similarities and differences between the shows, and they were not faster than participants with neutral or negative moods. It is concluded that the influence of mood on cognitive flexibility needs to be reconsidered. In research, temporal aspects of categorization performance as well as a wider range of mood valences should be taken into account.

Suboptimal exposure to facial expressions when viewing video messages from a small screen: Effects on emotion, attention, and memory

The authors examined the effects of suboptimally presented facial expressions on emotional and attentional responses and memory among 39 young adults viewing video (business news) messages from a small screen. Facial electromyography (EMG) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were used as physiological measures of emotion and attention, respectively. Several congruency priming effects were found. In particular, happy facial primes prompted increased (a) pleasure ratings, (b) orbicularis oculi EMG activity, (c) perceived trustworthiness, and (d) recognition memory for video messages with a positive emotional tone. Emotional and other responses to video messages presented on a small screen can be modified with suboptimal affective primes, but even small differences in the emotional tone of the messages should be allowed for.

The impact of situational constraints, role stressors, and commitment on employee altruism

This study investigated relations between 3 work-related stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, and organizational constraints) and altruistic behavior in the workplace. It was predicted that each stressor would be negatively related to altruism and that these relations would be moderated by affective commitment (AC). Data from 144 incumbent-supervisor dyads revealed that all 3 stressors were weakly and negatively related to altruism. Two of these relationships were moderated by AC, although not as predicted. Organizational constraints were positively related to altruism among those reporting high levels of AC but negatively related among those reporting low levels of AC. The pattern was exactly opposite for role conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The games psychologists play (and the data they provide)

Computer games and the technologies marketed to support them provide unique resources for psychological research. In contrast to the sterility, simplicity, and artificiality that characterizes many cognitive tests, game-like tasks can be complex, ecologically valid, and even fun. In the present paper,the history of psychological research with video games is reviewed, and several thematic benefits of this paradigm are identified. These benefits, as well as the possible pitfalls of research with computer game technology and game-like tasks, are illustrated with data from comparative and cognitive investigations.

The influence of positive affect on the components of expectancy motivation

The influence of positive affect on expectancy motivation was investigated in 2 studies. The results of Study 1 indicated that positive affect improved people's performance and affected their perceptions of expectancy and valence. In Study 1, in which outcomes depended on chance, positive affect did not influence people's perceptions of instrumentality. In Study 2, in which the link between performance and outcomes was specified, positive affect influenced all 3 components of expectancy motivation. Together, the results of Studies 1 and 2 indicated that positive affect interacts with task conditions in influencing motivation and that its influence on motivation occurs not through general effects, such as response bias or general activation, but rather through its influence on the cognitive processes involved in motivation.

Mechanisms linking employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions

Past empirical evidence has indicated that employee affective delivery can influence customer reactions (e.g., customer satisfaction, service quality evaluation). This study extends previous research by empirically examining mediating processes underlying the relationship between employee affective delivery and customer behavioral intentions. Data were collected from 352 employee-customer pairs in 169 retail shoe stores in Taiwan. Results showed that the influence of employee affective delivery on customers' willingness to return to the store and pass positive comments to friends was indirect through the mediating processes of customer in-store positive moods and perceived friendliness. The study also indicated that employee affective delivery influences customers' time spent in store, which, in turn, influences customer behavioral intentions.

Liking and attributions of motives as mediators of the relationships between individuals' reputations, helpful behaviors, and raters' reward decisions

Two studies investigated the mediating effects of liking and attributions of motives on the relationship between a ratee's reputation and helpful behaviors and raters' reward decisions. During managerial simulations, raters evaluated individuals after watching videotapes in which the individual's reputation and helpful behaviors were manipulated. Results indicated an interaction effect between reputation and helpful behaviors such that a helpful person with a good reputation received more rewards than did a helpful person with a bad reputation. In contrast, an unhelpful person with a good reputation did not receive better rewards than an unhelpful person with a bad reputation. Moreover, raters' liking of ratees and the motives raters attributed to ratees' helpful behaviors mediated the relationship between the manipulations and raters' reward decisions.

Fear, anger, and risk

Drawing on an appraisal-tendency framework (J. S. Lerner & D. Keltner, 2000), the authors predicted and found that fear and anger have opposite effects on risk perception. Whereas fearful people expressed pessimistic risk estimates and risk-averse choices, angry people expressed optimistic risk estimates and risk-seeking choices. These opposing patterns emerged for naturally occurring and experimentally induced fear and anger. Moreover, estimates of angry people more closely resembled those of happy people than those of fearful people. Consistent with predictions, appraisal tendencies accounted for these effects: Appraisals of certainty and control moderated and (in the case of control) mediated the emotion effects. As a complement to studies that link affective valence to judgment outcomes, the present studies highlight multiple benefits of studying specific emotions.

Risk as feelings

Virtually all current theories of choice under risk or uncertainty are cognitive and consequentialist. They assume that people assess the desirability and likelihood of possible outcomes of choice alternatives and integrate this information through some type of expectation-based calculus to arrive at a decision. The authors propose an alternative theoretical perspective, the risk-as-feelings hypothesis, that highlights the role of affect experienced at the moment of decision making. Drawing on research from clinical, physiological, and other subfields of psychology, they show that emotional reactions to risky situations often diverge from cognitive assessments of those risks. When such divergence occurs, emotional reactions often drive behavior. The risk-as-feelings hypothesis is shown to explain a wide range of phenomena that have resisted interpretation in cognitive-consequentialist terms.

Self-report measures of patient utility: should we trust them?

As self-reports, measures of patient utility are susceptible to the effects of cognitive biases in patients. This article presents often overlooked problems in these measures by outlining cognitive processes involved in patient self-report. It is argued that these measures: 1) require overly complex mental operations; 2) fail to elicit thoughtful response by default; 3) may be biased by patients' mood; 4) are affected by both researchers' choice of measurement instruments and patients' choice of judgment strategies; 5) tend to reflect the disproportionate influence of patients' values that happen to be recallable at the time of measurement; and 6) are affected by patients' fear of regret. It is suggested that solutions for these problems should involve: a) improving the methods of administration; b) developing measures that are less taxing to patients; and c) redefining the concept of patient utility as judged, as opposed to retrieved, evaluation. Published by 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.

Mood and organizational citizenship behavior: the effects of positive affect on employee organizational citizenship behavior intentions

This study, involving 139 employees from a variety of industries, organizations, and positions in Singapore, measured the effects of mood on the intentions of employees to contribute actions that are organizationally desirable but are not part of their formal job requirements (organizational citizenship behavior). After effects of established patterns of historical organizational citizenship behavior, demographic characteristics, and employee positive and negative affectivity had been controlled, stepwise regression analysis revealed that the amount of positive affect currently experienced by an employee significantly influenced the employee's intention to perform specific acts of organizational citizenship.

Computer Technology Training in the Workplace: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Effect of Mood

How does a person's mood during technology training influence motivation, intentions, and, ultimately, usage of the new technology? Do these mood effects dissipate or are they sustainable over time? A repeated-measures field study (n = 316) investigated the effect of mood on employee motivation and intentions toward using a specific computer technology at two points in time: immediately after training and 6 weeks after training. Actual usage behavior was assessed for 12 weeks after training. Each individual was assigned to one of three mood treatments: positive, negative, or control. Results indicated that there were only short-term boosts in intrinsic motivation and intention to use the technology among individuals in the positive mood intervention. However, a long-term lowering of intrinsic motivation and intention was observed among those in the negative mood condition. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.

The effects of mood on managerial risk perceptions: exploring affect and the dimensions of risk

The effects of managerial mood on situational risk perceptions were tested among 85 managers from a variety of organizations, industries, and positions in Singapore. A risk-assessment scenario was developed that systematically varied the risk dimensions of outcome uncertainty, potential gains and losses, situational framing, and personal expectations. Negative, neutral, and positive moods were induced by having managers recall and describe work events. As affective state became more positive, managers perceived situational framing as more positive, and their beliefs that they could influence risky outcomes increased. Additionally, positive affect increased the likelihood that people who perceived situations as risky would select riskier courses of action.

The Impact of Positive and Negative Affect and Issue Framing on Issue Interpretation and Risk Taking

Two studies examined the influence of transient affective states and issue framing on issue interpretation and risk taking within the context of strategic decision making. In Study 1, participants in whom transient positive or negative affective states were induced by reading a short story showed systematic differences in issue interpretation and risk taking in a strategic decision making context. Compared to negative mood participants, those in a positive mood were more likely to interpret the strategic issue as an opportunity and displayed lower levels of risk taking. Study 2 replicated and extended these results by crossing affective states with threat and opportunity frames. Results showed that framing an issue (as a threat or an opportunity) had a stronger impact on issue interpretation among negative affect participants than among positive affect participants. Affective states also moderated the impact of issue framing on risk taking: the effect of framing on risk-taking was stronger under negative rather than positive affect. These results are interpreted via information-processing and motivational effects of affect on a decision maker. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Levels of Analysis and the Organization of Affect

This article presents a framework for the organization of affective processes, including the affective traits, moods, and emotions. Section 1 introduces the levels-of-analysis approach, defines the three levels of affect, presents criteria for ordering these levels hierarchically in terms of simple and complex temporally driven processes, and examines the interrelations among the various levels of affect, including an in-depth analysis of affective trait–emotion relationships. Section 2 offers an application of the hierarchical view to research on affect–cognition interactions, including a brief review of affect congruency effects and a discussion of the conceptual and empirical challenges to such research necessitated by consideration of the differences among the levels of affect.

Rating and recognition of peers' personal odors by 9-year-old children: an exploratory study

Eighteen elementary school children assessed the pleasantness and perfumed aspect of familiar peers' odors, sampled through tee shirts worn without modification of hygienic habits. The participants were also requested to categorize the odors by sex and to recognize those of several target classmates varying in sex and socioemotional status (the participant's most preferred classmate vs. a mere acquaintance). The ratings of odors by familiar peers appeared consistent with those obtained from nonfamiliar peers and adults and varied according to the sex of wearer of the tee shirts. For the five categories of peers examined, as well as for the participants themselves, olfactory recognition was better than chance. Moreover, it was higher for the same-sex preferred peers than for the others only for the female perceivers. The results are discussed in terms of their behavioral relevance for peer relationships, focusing especially on (a) the relations between sex differences in odors and gender development and (b) the function of olfactory memory in the emotional regulation of friendships.

Inducing positive mood without demand characteristics

The possibility that a state of private self-awareness induced by a small mirror can facilitate the effect of procedures which induce a positive mood was investigated. Participants were 171 female and 60 male undergraduates who were randomly assigned to one of six conditions in a 2 (Mirror vs No-mirror) x 3 (Control vs Velten manipulation vs Music manipulation) design. As predicted, participants who experienced the Velten and Music manipulations in the presence of the mirror reported elevated mood relative to control participants. The mood of participants who experienced the Velten and Music manipulations without the mirror did not differ from the mood of control participants. The potential benefits of using a small mirror as a substitute for explicit instructions about the expected effect of mood-induction procedures are discussed.

Mood-state-dependent retrieval: the effects of induced mood on memory reconsidered

Analysis of studies investigating mood-state-dependent retrieval identifies methodological problems that may have contributed to the controversy surrounding the reliability of the effect-in particular, the possible confounding of encoding and retrieval in previous studies. Five experiments are reported investigating the effects of mood on learning and recall. Mood-state-dependent retrieval was observed in Experiment 1a (using Velten's Mood Induction Procedure); Experiment 1b (using a music MIP); and Experiment lc (using Velten's MIP at encoding and a music MIP at retrieval). Subjects who learned and recalled in different moods had significantly greater decrements in recall than did subjects in the same moods. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated the effect of observable retrieval cues on mood-state-dependent retrieval. In Experiment 2, the presence of observable retrieval cues at recall overrode state-dependent retrieval. In Experiment 3, by manipulating the presence or absence of observable cues at recall, both the occurrence and the erasure of the mood-state dependency was demonstrated. Mood state during learning and cued recall was also shown to affect performance in a third session under conditions of free recall.

Effects of mood state and favorability of feedback on reactions to performance feedback

An experimental simulation involving 55 women assessed the main and interactive effects of experimentally induced mood state (positive vs negative) and favorability of performance feedback (positive vs negative) on the perceived accuracy of feedback. The study was conducted in two sessions. During Session I the subjects role-played the position of an advertising agent and worked on an advertising task. In Session II they were administered either a positive or negative mood induction, given positive or negative feedback on the advertising task, and completed a measure of the perceived accuracy of feedback. Regression analyses indicated support for hypothesized main and interactive effects, suggesting that mood state and favorability of feedback interactively affect the perceived accuracy of received feedback.

The influence of affect on the achievement and behavior of students with learning disabilities

Research indicates that students with learning disabilities are likely to be at greater risk for experiencing negative affect than their higher achieving counterparts. The purpose of this article is to review recent research on the effects of affect on thoughts, cognition, and behavior. This research finds that induced positive affects leads to more accurate performance on math, greater learning of new vocabulary, and better performance on a new learning task. Implications of and suggestions for follow-up studies of negative and positive affect in students with learning disabilities are presented.