Date Thesis Awarded
5-2009
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Chris Ball
Committee Members
Cheryl L. Dickter
Katherine Guthrie
Abstract
The current research examined the effect of a positive and negative mood manipulation on the characteristics of involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memory retrievals elicited through a laboratory based methodology with the hope to find further support for the self memory system (SMS) model. As predicted, it was found that involuntary memory recalls displayed mood congruency whereas voluntary memory retrievals did not show a mood congruence effect. The study also found that involuntary memory retrievals were significantly more vivid, containing more details, than voluntary memories. No significant differences were found for the involuntary and voluntary retrievals for the age of the memory or specificity. This may suggest that involuntary and voluntary autobiographical retrievals go through the same retrieval process to be recalled. There were no mood effects found for the vividness, age of memory, or the specificity. Future findings using these laboratory methods for eliciting involuntary memories may have implications for the development of treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis, and depression.
Recommended Citation
Gimbert, Jennifer, "Mood Manipulation Effects on the Characteristics and Retrieval of Involuntary and Voluntary Autobiographical Memories" (2009). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 306.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/306
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Comments
Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.