The impact of spontaneous and induced mood states on problem solving and memory

Shen, W.; Zhao, Y.; Hommel, B.; Yuan, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Liu, Z.; Gu, H. (2019)

Article / Letter to editor

Accumulating theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that task-irrelevant mood states have specific effects on insightful and analytical problem solving, but few studies have directly related those states to these two problem-solving strategies. The present research investigated the impact of pre-existing mood and experimentally induced mood states on solving problems that could be solved analytically or by insight. Results revealed that an induced negative moods, as compared to an induced neutral mood, increases the probability of analytic solutions. In contrast, spontaneous positive moods facilitated problem solving performance regardless of the specific solution strategy. Additionally, the process of generating solutions had a marked effect on subsequent memory recall regardless of recall interval. These findings provide support for the cognitive tuning theory.

• All authors: Shen, W.; Zhao, Y.; Hommel, B.; Yuan, Y.; Zhang, Y.; Liu, Z.; Gu, H.
• Date: 2019-03-16
• Journal: Thinking Skills and Creativity
• Volume: 32
• Pages: 66 - 74
• DOI: doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2019.03.002