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The Impact of Induced Mood on Visual Information Processing

Dumitrascu, Nicolae
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1321490234

Abstract Details

2011, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, College of Arts and Sciences.
Previous research in the areas of social psychology, perception, memory, thinking, and creativity suggests that a happy mood promotes global, flexible, top-down processing, whereas a sad mood leads to a more analytic, less flexible, bottom-up processing. The main goal of this study was to determine if selected variables of the Rorschach Inkblot Test can capture the mood effects associated with a happy and a sad mood, respectively. A linear increase was predicted in Global Focus-W, Global Focus Synthesis-WSy, Synthesis-Sy, Perceptual Originality-Xu%, and Ideational Flexibility-Content Range and a linear decrease was predicted in Local Focus-Dd across the three mood conditions (sad/neutral/happy). Also, an increase was predicted in Perceptual Inaccuracy-X-% in both happy and sad mood conditions as compared to neutral. A secondary goal of this study was to replicate the findings showing a global/local bias as a function of mood state on two perceptual tasks requiring hierarchical processing. The participants were 124 college students, randomly assigned to three mood conditions (sad/happy/neutral), with each mood condition going through experimental procedures separately from the other two conditions. Mood was induced using movie clips. Following mood induction, the hierarchical perceptual tasks and inkblot task were administered in a group format. Due to a higher than expected positive mood at baseline, the neutral condition was excluded from analyses, so the linearity predictions and the hypothesis pertaining to Perceptual Inaccuracy could not be tested. Instead, the study hypotheses were tested by comparing the dependent variables across two mood induction conditions (happy/sad). The hypotheses were supported for the inkblot variables Local Focus-Dd% and Ideational Flexibility-Content Range, but not for the remaining four Rorschach variables or the other two perceptual tasks. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed.
Joni Mihura, PhD (Committee Chair)
Gregory Meyer, PhD (Committee Member)
John Jasper, PhD (Committee Member)
Mary Haines, PhD (Committee Member)
Jeanne Brockmyer, PhD (Committee Member)
106 p.
Psychological Tests; Psychology
Rorschach; hierarchical processing; mood; perception

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dumitrascu, N. (2011). The Impact of Induced Mood on Visual Information Processing [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1321490234

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dumitrascu, Nicolae. The Impact of Induced Mood on Visual Information Processing. 2011. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1321490234.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dumitrascu, Nicolae. "The Impact of Induced Mood on Visual Information Processing." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1321490234

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1321490234
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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.