Date of Award
1996
Document Type
Research Paper
Abstract
This experiment compares implicit and explicit memory in college students in experimentally induced moods. It was designed to eliminate the confounding of implicit-perceptual and explicit-conceptual memory tests by using conceptual implicit and explicit tests. It was hypothesized that the depressed mood group would perform as well as the neutral group on the implicit measure, but not the explicit measure. College students underwent neutral or depressive mood inductions, then participated in an incidental learning task in which they judged whether or not a word fit in a sentence. After a distractor task, the participants took either implicit or explicit category exemplar generation tests. Contrary to hypothesis, the only significant finding was that both explicit groups performed better than bot implicit groups. There was a nonsignificant trend such that the difference in scores between participants in the depressed/implicit versus depressed/explicit groups was larger than the difference between the scores of the neutral groups. This may have occurred due to an unsuccessful mood induction, an inconsistency between the mood induced and a naturally occurring depressed or dysphoric mood, or an extremely effortful learning task. It may also be due to the lack of motivation in depressed mood. Suggestions for future research are given.
Recommended Citation
Garvin-Dale, E. (1996). Implicit and Explicit Memory in Experimentally Induced Moods. Retrieved from https://poetcommons.whittier.edu/scholars/208