THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF CONTENTMENT AND HOPE ON WORKING MEMORY

Abstract

Existing literature has found evidence for the effects of positive affect on controlled processing. However, research on discrete positive emotions, especially contentment, is scarce. This study investigated the effects of induced contentment on working memory in comparison to induced hope and neutral state. Participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) completed an online experiment where they had to write about either an area of life they were contented with, a goal they were hopeful of achieving or their dishwashing routine. They then completed an operation span task to measure working memory performance. Participants in the contentment condition had better working memory performance than those in the hope and neutral condition. Participants in the hope and neutral condition had similar working memory performance. The findings present theoretical implications on the importance of studying discrete positive emotions and their differential impact on controlled processing and subsequently, well-being. The limitations of the study and future directions were also discussed.