THE IMPACT OF POSITIVE MOOD ON LEARNING

The primary intent of this study was to examine the effects of a brief positive mood induction on a learning task that stimulates beginning reading acquisition. A secondary intent was to examine the durability of this effect across a period of two weeks, Sixty students, half aver age-achieving and half with learning disabilities, were randomly assig ned to either a positive or a neutral mood induction condition, In an effort to control for the effects of prior knowledge, all students rec eived instruction in elementary Hindi language on a series of five tas ks, After two weeks, the instruction and tasks were readministered, Th e results of a MANCOVA indicated that both groups of students in the p ositive mood condition performed better than those in the neutral cond ition, although not statistically so, However, gain scores indicated t hat across a two-week period, students with learning disabilities in t he positive condition performed significantly better than students wit h learning disabilities in the neutral condition.