Better Mood = Worse Memory

Posted by webber | Friday, April 01, 2011 | , | 0 comments »



Do you have trouble remembering names at parties? It may be because your having too good a time.

Individuals who have trouble recalling facts that they had just studied or dialogue from a recent conversation may have experienced this type of memory loss because they were in a good mood at the time that they were learning or speaking, according to a recent study that was published in the journal Cognition and Emotion.

Though good mood brings along cheerfulness and positive feelings, it is also linked with forgetfulness, as such a state of mind decreases your working memory capacity. The investigators said they believe that good mood may reduce a person's capacity for working memory.

The ability to remember things may be tied to your mood, finds a new study by Elizabeth Martin, U of Missouri who says that hers is the first research “to show that a positive mood can negatively impact working memory storage capacity.”

While being in a good mood might decrease memory capacity, for the short term at least, it’s not all bad. "Being in a good mood has been shown to increase creative problem-solving skills and other aspects of thinking," says Martin.

0 comments