EFFECTS OF AFFECTIVE INFORMATION, SELF-CONCEPTS, AND MOOD STATES ON REHEARSAL STRATEGIES IN SHORT TERM MEMORY

This study investigated the effects of affective information, global and situational self-concepts, and mood states on rehearsal strategies in short term memory. The sample was composed of 100 college students from undergraduate programs in education and business. Affective assessments based on normative as well as idiographic procedures were obtained. Analyses of rehearsal strategies, using serial position effect in free recall, were based on nomathetic assessments of affectivity. Analyses of differential recall of affect were based on idiographic ratings. In all self-concept categories, positive and negative information was accorded significantly more rehearsal than neutral information. This effect resulted in both significantly enhanced recall of positive and negative information compared to neutral, and significant amnesic effects prior to and immediately following the affective information. There were no significant interactions between self-concept and mood and the differential processing of affect. Significant differences between males and females in rehearsal and recall of affective information on the three measures was found. When affect was assessed idiographically, high global self-concept and elated mood subjects recalled positive information of significantly greater affective intensity, and negative information of the same or less intensity than nonrecalled. Low self-concept and depressed subjects showed a diminution of this effect. Low situation specific self-concept males focused on the positive over the negative. The results support the view that in different moods, and with different self-concepts, individuals attend to information that has the strongest affect for them, positive or negative. Affective quality takes precedence over intensity, although intensity plays a role in memory as well. Mood states interact with self-concepts. Subjects in elated moods possessed high global self-concepts, and in depressed moods, lower self-concepts, than the general experimental population. On the situational measure, only high self-concept subjects showed this effect; depressed subjects had self-concepts no lower than the general population. The specific situation influenced recall of affective information. Males and females, when rehearsing and recalling affective information, were influenced differently by their moods, self-concepts, and the current situation