Mood Dependent Memory for Internal Versus External Events

Events that originate through internal mental operations such as reasoning, imagination, and thought may be more colored by or connected to one's current mood than are those that emanate from external sources. If so, then a shift in mood state, between the occasions of event encoding and event retrieval, should have a greater adverse impact on one's memory for internal than for external events. To investigate this inference, a series of studies was conducted that relied on a continuous music technique to modify mood, and on the generate/read procedures devised by Slamecka and Graf (1978) to distinguish internal from external events. Considered collectively, the results suggest that internal events are less likely than external events to be recalled after a shift in mood state. Discussion centers on both the empirical limitations and theoretical implications of the present results, as well as on prospects for future research.