Being Sad Is Not Always Bad: The Influence of Affect on Expository Text Comprehension

ABSTRACT

We investigated how affective states influence expository text comprehension and whether text valence moderates the effects (i.e., mood congruency). In Experiment 1 participants were randomly assigned to a happy or sad affective state (elicited via films) before reading a positive or negative version of a scientific text on animal adaptations. Participants (n = 79) in the sad (film) group had higher scores on deep-reasoning (d = .312) but not surface-level questions on a subsequent multiple-choice comprehension assessment; there was also no evidence for mood congruence. Using a neutral version of the same text, in Experiment 2 participants (n = 52) in a fearful condition performed better on surface-level comprehension questions (d = .594) compared with a sad condition, but the groups were on par for deep-reasoning questions. Experiment 3 (n = 595) did not replicate the findings from Experiment 2 (no comprehension differences between the sad and fear groups) and there were no differences between the fear and happy groups. However, the sad group outperformed the happy group on deep-reasoning questions (d = .210), thereby replicating Experiment 1. The overall findings were confirmed after pooling the data from the three experiments to increase power.

Appendix A

Link to experimental materials (texts and questions) https://osf.io/jvnqx/view_only=c66b95594e0c401abf4f37b5ee943a7b.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the following grants from the National Science Foundation: 1745442, IIS 1523091, and DRL 1235958. Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of National Science Foundation.

Notes

¹ We considered including a neutral condition in Experiment 3, but abandoned it due to difficulties in reliably inducing a neutral state during pilot testing.