Recall Me Maybe: The Effects of Music-Evoked Mood on Recognition Memory

The current study aims to further explore the relationship between musically evoked emotional states and recognition capabilities. Previous research has demonstrated emotional congruency between musical stimuli and subsequent task performance (Mitterschiffthaler et al., 2007). The background music’s emotional valence provides additional insight into how to guide the perception of events and how music-evoked emotions can impact memory (Scherer & Zentner, 2001; Hanser et al., 2015). For instance, happy people will have an easier time remembering positive experiences, rather than sad, or negatively valanced ones while those who are sad will better remember negative experiences, rather than happy, or positively valanced ones (Mayer et al., 1995). The current study consisted of 46 participants, recruited from Belmont Introductory Psychology courses. We hypothesized that participants who are induced to a positive emotional state will rate images more positively, while those in negative states will do the opposite. Additionally, we hypothesized that the recognition accuracy of positively valanced images will be higher for the positive group compared to the negative one, and vice versa. The implication of this study allows us to further understand the interplay of different factors, such as emotional states, and cognitive functioning. Results and discussion are forthcoming

The Effects of Peer Pressure on Social Conformity

The urge to be a member of a group, to fit in, and peer pressure can lead to many unexpected and unwanted repercussions. We see evidence of such consequences around us and even within ourselves daily. Social media can easily contribute to this problem by either allowing users to present their lives as something they are not, a deceptive representation of their true wants, or by allowing them to express their opinions in a way that denigrates those of others. To examine the link between peer pressure and social conformity, researchers have been studying whether strength of attraction to a group determines degree of conformity. Many studies attest to this hypothesis. This study utilizes 60 participants selected from Belmont University’s students enrolled in Scientific Psychology, General Psychology or Introductory Psychology courses. Students would participate this study under the impression that the study subject was understanding the effects of different type of schooling on long-term retention of information. They were asked to take a short test, during which confederates will attempt to push them to cheat after being explicitly told not to do so. We hypothesized that individuals are more likely to cheat when prompted to do so by their peer and when students are not prompted to cheat, they will not cheat out of fear of disrupting group harmonics. Data collection to test these hypotheses are ongoing, and results will be presented at SURS. The implication of this study allows us to reflect on the choices we make due to peer pressure and to reevaluate whether following the majority is always the right choice