The effect of importance and vividness of recalled episodes on mood-congruent encoding using autobiographical elaboration task

This study investigated mood congruent encoding effects using an autobiographical elaboration task in naturally occurring mood states. We investigated the importance and vividness of the recalled episodes related to whether the stimuli words influenced mood congruent encoding effects. The result of Experiment 1 showed that mood congruent encoding effects occurred when participants in the positive and negative mood conditions recalled high importance episodes. The result of Experiment 2 showed that mood congruent encoding effects occurred when participants in the positive mood condition recalled high vividness episodes and participants in the negative mood condition recalled middle and high vividness episode. The pattern of mood congruent encoding effects differed with the quality of the recalled episodes. These results indicated that the qualities of recalled episodes influenced mood congruent encoding effect.