Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study examined the effects of emotion on the long-term acquisition of a procedural skill over a five-day period. Two tasks were employed: a word association task (WAT) and a visual discrimination task (VDT). Over the initial four days of the study participants went through a mood induction procedure (MIP) then subsequently completed both tasks. Both tasks showed a reduction in reaction time consistent with the power law of learning. No significant change in reaction time between day four and day five (one week later) was noted suggesting the change in reaction time was robust. These data further suggest that emotion modifies the rate at which the VDT is acquired.