Stroop interference following mood induction: Emotionality, mood congruence, and concern relevance

Research using the emotion Stroop task has established that individuals with various emotional disorders exhibit increased interference for stimuli specifically related to their disorder due to the concern relevance and negativity of these stimuli. Our study expands this research to normal populations. We examined the influence of emotionality, mood congruence, and concern relevance following experimental mood-induction procedures (MIPs) on emotion Stroop performance of college students. Participants completed a computerized emotion Stroop task following positive and negative MIPs. Results supported the mood congruence and concern relevance but not the emotionality hypotheses. The implication of these findings for theories of emotional breakdown and the importance of studying the idiographic aspects of affective experience are discussed.