22nd Annual Student Research Conference
Humor and Mood: Does Mood Congruence Effect Recall of Humorous Stimuli?
Leah E. Kern*, Anh P. Nguyen, and Laura M. Najjar♦
Dr. Karen Vittengl, Faculty Mentor
In the humor effect, humorous material is recalled better than non-humorous material. Carlson (in press) supported the perceived humor hypothesis of the humor effect, stating that humorous stimuli are recalled more successfully because the incongruities in the stimuli are perceived as humorous, and humor directly leads to better recall. Yet, Ferre (2003) proposed that mood congruence may also have an effect. The present study investigated the mood congruence effect on recall of humorous stimuli. We hypothesized that inducing mild positive moods at encoding or recall would enhance memory of humorous stimuli, but inducing mild negative moods, particularly at recall, would minimize the humor effect.
Keywords: humor effect, incongruities, mood congruence, encoding, recall, memory, positive, negative
Topic(s):Psychology
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 3-3
Location: PML
Time: 4:15
♦ Indicates Truman Graduate Student