a Psychology Department , Jagiellonian University , Krakow , Poland.
Cogn Emot. 2013;27(7):1181-201. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2013.778817. Epub 2013 Apr 5.
Three studies (N=539) examined the hypothesis that positive mood increases the degree to which epistemic motivation, i.e., the need for closure (NFC), affects the way in which an individual processes information (heuristic vs. systematic processing). In each of the studies, different methods of operationalising mood were used: in Study 1, mood was measured as a state; in Study 2, mood was induced by asking participants to recall emotional events; and in Study 3, mood was induced by emotional pictures. The styles of information processing that were utilised by our participants were operationalised in terms of their preferences for (Study 1) and ability to recall (Studies 2 and 3) schema-consistent and schema-inconsistent information. Taken together, the results of the three studies show that only under positive mood, NFC level of an individual is consistent with his or her style of information processing, that is, only under positive mood is there a negative relationship between the NFC level of an individual and the utilisation of schema-inconsistent information. Our results can be explained in terms of the effect that mood has on an individual's perceived ability to achieve NFC.
三项研究（N=539）检验了积极情绪是否会增加认识动机（即寻求封闭的需要，NFC）影响个体信息处理方式（启发式 vs. 系统式处理）的程度这一假设。在每项研究中，都使用了不同的操作化情绪方法：在研究 1 中，情绪作为一种状态进行测量；在研究 2 中，通过要求参与者回忆情绪事件来诱导情绪；在研究 3 中，通过情绪图片来诱导情绪。我们的参与者所采用的信息处理方式可以通过他们对（研究 1）和回忆（研究 2 和 3）模式一致和模式不一致信息的偏好来操作化。总的来说，三项研究的结果表明，只有在积极情绪下，个体的 NFC 水平才与其信息处理方式一致，也就是说，只有在积极情绪下，个体的 NFC 水平与使用模式不一致的信息之间才存在负相关关系。我们的结果可以用情绪对个体实现 NFC 的感知能力的影响来解释。
