POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MOOD EFFECTS IN CHILDREN - THE MEDIATING INFLUENCE OF TASK CHARACTERISTICS

This study was designed to investigate positive and negative mood effe cts in children of different ages (younger children: n = 90, mean age 7 years 3 months; older children: n = 92, mean age 11 years 3 months). Children were asked to evaluate schematic drawings and photographs of ambiguous facial expressions after a happy, a sad, or a neutral mood induction had taken place by means of a mental imagery procedure. In b oth age groups, mood effects proved to be dependent on the nature of t he judgment task. Positive and negative mood effects were found on chi ldren's judgments of schematic drawings, whereas the evaluation of pho tographs resulted in a positive bias only. The results are discussed w ithin the scope of a multiprocess view of the relation between affect and cognition (Forgas, 1991, 1992) and a recent model on mood-sensitiv e task characteristics (Fiedler, 1991).