Mood as input: The relevance of neutral tasks for quantitative and qualitative aspects of performance

As a single-process view the mood-as-input model of Martin and his colleagu es (Martin, Ward, Achee & Wyer, 1993) describes the informative function of moods for cognitive processing. Their results support the postulated inter actions of moods with processing goals for quantitative measures of perform ance (numbers generated, time spent) but for qualitative measures (creativi ty) only main effects of mood were observed. Up to date mainly pleasant tas ks are used in this research, hence this paper tested hypotheses on the rol e of less pleasant, neutral-valenced tasks. In N = 62 students of the Unive rsity of Heidelberg (19-43 years, median 24 years) a positive or neutral fe eling state was induced with film clips. Then, half of each group formed wo rd associations to neutral targets with either a result-oriented or process -oriented goal instruction. Results replicated the expected interaction of mood with processing goal for quantitative indices with an inverse pattern. Qualitative measures revealed main effects for mood and processing goal. T he findings demonstrate the neglected aspects of task valence and support t he validity of the multiple-process view of mood influence.