Stay grumpy and you’ll have a more realistic worldview…
A 2008 paper out of Australia, entitled “Can bad weather improve your memory? An unobtrusive field study of natural mood effects on real-life memory” attempts to show the effects of mood on subjects ability to recall items recently seen in a shop.
Using weather as a proxy for mood, what they found was those who were quizzed when the weather was bright and sunny - i.e. exhibiting a good mood - were less able to recall items that were easily seen within the shop. Those that were questioned during lousy weather - i.e. in a bad mood - were much more able to recall the unusual planted objects from the store.
So does this study show that people are more distracted during times of good mood, or does it mean that people in a good mood are more forgetful? Does sunlight, and it’s varying affects on the human body cause distraction or memory loss, or is enhanced mood the only factor? The quick description of the study doesn’t make it clear what they determined.
Either way, you could interpret this as simply as studying for a test in a dark, dreary, but comfortable enough place will enhance your ability to recall. So if you take this to the extreme, make sure you or your kids are slightly annoyed when it’s important to cognitively excel for a specific task. Likely too, when you’re out shopping or signing contracts make sure that you’re not too damn happy (or sunlit) - you’ll be less likely to forget important details about prices, rules and clauses.
Anything here rankle you? Feeling overly perturbed or elated? Leave a comment below. or subscribe to the Sauce Captain feed.
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