Context-dependent Memory - Mood-congruent and Mood-dependent Memory

Mood-congruent and Mood-dependent Memory

One commonly reported phenomenon is that when individuals are in a "bad mood", they typically recall more bad things having happened to them and evaluate episodes in their lives in a more negative way than usual. It has been suggested that this effect occurs because a person’s mood at any given time has a strong influence on which aspects of their environment seem most salient. This affects what they remember about the past, and what they encode about the present. This particular effect is referred to as mood-congruent and mood-dependent memory.

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Famous quotes containing the word memory:

    Why is it that we have enough memory to recollect the most minute circumstances of something that has happened to us, but not enough to remember how many times we have recounted them to the same person?
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)