The effect of mood and demand on memory.

Mood biasing – the tendency to remember information consistent with one's prevailing mood – was demonstrated in an experiment in which mood-induced subjects recalled personal experiences and a list of self-descriptive personality traits based on a bogus personality test. Elated subjects recalled more positive experiences and traits while depressed subjects recalled more negative experiences and traits. A second experiment assessed the contribution of demand characteristics to mood biasing. Mood-induced subjects told that people who experience mood induction tend to remember information contrary to their mood did not show any mood selectivity effect for the recall of personality traits but did show the usual mood-dependent retrieval effect for recall of personal experiences. The relevance of the mood-induction paradigm to mood biasing in clinical depression is discussed.