Effects of probabilistic judgments on negative moods

Theory and research on the effects of mood and cognition have shown that persons in a negative mood tend toward analytic effortful processing strategies, whereas individuals in a positive mood prefer simplifying heuristic strategies. A review of literature shows that (a) mainly the influence of mood on cognition and social behavior (e.g., persuasion) has been investigated; and (b) achievements in memory and cognitive tasks were of central concern. Based on these studies and on propositional network models of human information processing, the present study investigates influences in the opposite direction, e.g., the effect of cognitive style on feeling states.