Eich's Argument Essay

The body and mind is constantly changing and responding to the environment it is in, experiencing highs and lows. As the body shifts from one state to another various chemicals and hormones are released into various systems as well as the blood stream. Not only do the events that take place in our lives effect the state our body is in but also drugs and medicine effect the chemical balance within the body. These chemicals and hormones alter the properties of the brain and thus have an effect on memory. It has been proven that the memory experiences state and mood dependency. Thus the shifting from one state to another affects the recall of information. There are many different methods to manipulate an individuals’ mood in order to measure …show more content…
In an experiment contrasted by Eich, mood-dependent recall is evident in the results where when going from happy to happy the probability of recall is .32 when once generated and when going from sad to sad the probability of recall is .27 when once generated.4 This is in comparison to the significantly lower probability of recall when going from sad to happy as well as happy to sad where the probability of recall is .17 when once generated. (Note: mood was manipulated with music in experiment 1) In another trail of the same experiment the same results were seen where happy to happy has a .22 probability of recall when once generated where going from happy to sad has a .14 probability of recall. In the final results table of Eich’s experiment, the probability of recall of experiments 1-4 are combined and when moods were matched probability of recall when generated was .28 compared to .19 when moods were mismatched. The same pattern of results can be seen in the drug manipulation experiment.3 Where when learned and recall occurred in the same state more information was recalled than when when taking a drug and the placebo during different