O papel dos estados afetivos sobre os processos cognitivos de assimilação e acomodação

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between the affective state (mood) and the types of information processing known as top-down (assimilative function) and bottomup (accommodative function). More precisely, it focused on whether the internalized general knowledge (beliefs) is facilitated by assimilative processes, being activated when the person is in a state of positive mood and, on the other hand, whether knowledge derived from data (facilitated by accommodative functions) is produced in states of negative mood. The theoretical model used was developed by Fiedler & Bless, 2000. Thirty-two subjects, with ages ranging from 17 to 38 years old, both male and female, college graduates and undergraduates, participated in this research. Participants were, initially, induced into positive and negative moods and, subsequently, tested with an active generation task in which they had to read or form (from a pool of letters provided) verbs preceded by nouns that acted as priming. The final task consisted of freely recalling the presented verbs. A judge test was conducted in order to select the nouns and verbs. The results indicated that the subjects under negatively-induced mood presented a mnemonic advantage regarding the previously read words. The prevalence of accommodative processes associated with a negative mood was expected and, in fact, the recall of words read beforehand (a predominantly accommodative task) was observed, leading to the conclusion that information processing by subjects in this mood was driven by data . Conversely, in those subjects with positive mood, associated with the task that demanded the assimilative functions of creating and forming verbs, there was probably an orientation of the information processing towards top-down-prevalent functions, since they resorted more to previous knowledge concerning the presented stimuli (pairs of nouns and verbs), activating a larger amount of information connected to these stimuli (semantic networks that facilitated the recall of the verbs created). Thus, the analysis of this sample s data seems to suggest that, in fact, positive mood triggers previous knowledge structures (beliefs) and causes a higher use of assimilative functions since, in this condition, there is a prevalence of inferences, original thoughts and creativity. Therefore, these results may contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between mood states and the cognitive functions related to equilibration.