| Summary: | Recent results in the area of mood and memory have highlighted the limits of simple models of mood effects put forward in the 1980's [e.g. Bower, 1981]. One set of studies of which illustrates results that cannot easily be accommodated by such simple approaches is the finding of mood incongruence by Parrott & Sabini [1990]. This thesis investigated how mood and personality affect the recall of emotional material, initially replicating a study of Parrott & Sabini [1990] and extending this work by looking at recall of semantic material under similar conditions using the self referent encoding paradigm (SRE) [Rogers, Kuipers & Kirker, 1997]. Two types of material were studied - autobiographical memories and adjectives previously rated for self reference - each being investigated following a covert musical mood induction procedure (MIP), an overt musical MIP or in the absence of a prior mood change. The effects of the personality traits of repression, neuroticism and extraversion on these two memory tasks were also studied. It was found that mood effects on memory vary with the type of memory being recalled. For both autobiographical memories and self-referent adjectives, overall recall following an overt MIP produced mood congruity, while no effects were found for initial recall. However, where the MIP used was covert, recall of the initial autobiographical memory showed 'mood incongruity' (an effect limited to non-repressors), while mood congruity was found for the initial adjective recalled in the SRE study. Examination of personality traits on mood effects revealed a number of interesting effects. In general repressors showed a tendency to avoid recalling negative material in the absence of a mood change, and showed some evidence of a lack of mood effects on both memory tasks following the overt MIP.
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