Pollyanna is the name of a fictional character who is known for her capacity to find goodness in even the worst of environments and situations.  This little girl’s aptitude for finding the positive side of almost anything has led to a hypothesis named after her (Warr, 1971).  Research by Boucher and Osgood (1969) describe the Pollyanna hypothesis by stating that a collective tendency exists for humans to use positive words in an evaluative context more frequently, facilely, and in more assorted manners than negative words. To put the ideas of the Pollyanna Hypothesis simply, people tend to look on the bright side of things and even talk about the brighter side of life.

            One of the premises stemming from the Pollyanna principle asserts that people are more accurate in learning and the subsequent recall of words that are pleasant/positive in comparison to words that are unpleasant/negative and neutral.  A archival analysis of research by Matlin and Stang (1978) found support for this premise and also determined two factors that were significantly important in the occurrence of Pollyanna congruent recall: the length of delay prior to recall and the criterion of learning.  In examining the research, selective recall was a more likely occurrence when recall was delayed: the longer the delay, the more selective recall that occurred.   Selective recall is also more likely to be found when a high criterion of learning is present: the higher level of perfection demanded by the experimenter, the greater the occurrence of selective recall.

Boucher and Osgood (1969) evaluated the manner in which positive words are used more frequently than negative words.  They found a strong positive relationship between efficiency in usage and how favorable the evaluation was, but an exact cause and effect relationship was unable to be determined.  According to the Pollyanna hypothesis, evaluation is what causes the increased frequency of positive word usage.  The Pollyanna principle was proposed to explain why it is much more common for a child to use positive words such as pretty or nice to describe someone, as opposed to negative words such as ugly and mean.  Even though research by Boucher and Osgood (1969) showed that individuals tend to speak positive words more frequently than negative words, they were unable to describe or suggest reasons for this finding.

An analysis of research by Warr (1971) suggested the Pollyanna hypothesis can be expanded to personal judgments.  Positive words (E+) are, in general, used more often than negative words (E-).  Positive words are used with a greater frequency in personal descriptions.  This may indicate that there is a lower threshold for E+ characteristics versus E- characteristics.  Research has shown women to be more affected by the Pollyanna effect, leading women to be more likely than men to make positive (E+) judgments.

Van Rooijen (1973) investigated the importance of the pleasant versus unpleasant dynamic in communication.  Participants were given descriptions of facial expressions that were pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant, and were asked to select from an array of photographs the picture they believed matched the emotion described.  It was predicted to be a processing advantage for both pleasant and unpleasant facial expression over neutral expressions in regards to accurate descriptions and identification.  Yet, the results contradicted the expectations of the researcher.  The results showed that the more pleasant the facial expression was, the better participants were able to match the picture to the appropriate description. 

Osgood and Hoosain (1983) presented unmistakable evidence for the increased processing time necessary for affectively negative words versus affectively positive words.  Participants were shown a series of words; prior to the presentation of each word, the experimenter announced either “positive” or “negative.” Participants were instructed to push one of two buttons in order to indicate whether the word presented was congruent or incongruent with the emotional polarity announced by the experimenter.  There were consistently shorter latencies for positive items versus negative items, presenting evidence for the processing dominance of affectively positive words over affectively negative words.  Results for the processing dominance of affectively positive words with the prefix un- was not as apparent.

Research by Matlin and Gawron (1979) used a variety of methods of Pollyannaism in efforts to determine whether the individual’s Pollyannaism remained consistent.  Fourteen measures were used to determine Pollyannaism; this included measures that assessed happiness and one’s concern with rating people, while the other measures involved memory and verbal behavior.  Optimism and happiness were assessed by self-rating.  General results showed optimism and happiness were moderately correlated with the various measures of Pollyannaism.  Optimists recalled pleasant items more efficiently than unpleasant items; they also believed that pleasant words occurred more frequently than unpleasant words. In contrast to males, females tended to be happier, demonstrated recall that was more selective, and believed in the higher frequency of pleasant words. 

Dember and Penwell (1980) were interested in how pessimists and the Pollyanna principle are related and whether the data that deviated from expectations could be attributed to pessimism.  Another purpose of the research was to determine the strength of the correlation between happiness and depression scales.  Two Pollyanna tasks were looked at in this study.  In the first task, the participants were asked to rank order a list of 12 vegetables in accordance to how much they liked them, with one being the most favorable and 12 being the least favorable.  For the second Pollyanna task, the participants were given 12 adjective pairs and instructed to circle the member of the pair that was a more favorable and positive way to describe someone. 

The results of the two verbal tasks remained consistent with the Pollyanna principle, yet there was no correlation between the scores on the two tasks.  Also, only the scores from the second Pollyanna task were correlated with happiness.  There were no significant differences present when the data were analyzed by gender.  Minor correlational differences were present, though none were statistically significant; male participants in the study generated stronger correlations between the happiness scales and the antonym task.  Dember and Penwell (1980) stressed the need for a set of standardized Pollyanna tasks for future research.

Pollyannaism and defensive pessimism are thought to interfere with scores of optimism and pessimism.  Defensive pessimism is when low expectations are set in the face of potential challenges to account for potential and feared failure (Norem & Cantor, 1986).  Hummer, Dember, Melton, and Schefft (1992) further investigated the possible affects of Pollyannaism and defensive pessimism on tests of optimism and pessimism.  To test specifically for a Pollyanna response bias, two measures of Pollyannaism were developed, and the results subsequently correlated with the optimism and pessimism scores.  The first measure involved a spew order task, the participants were asked to generate twelve pairs of antonyms to potentially describe a person.  After this was done, the participant was asked to circle the more complimentary word of the antonym pair that they had generated.  The score for Pollyannaism was found by totaling the frequency that the positive word of the antonym pair was circled.  The second measure was an evaluative behavior task in which each participant was asked to evaluate a male acquaintance whom the participant felt indifferent about; the experimenters then evaluated how favorable the impression was. 

There is an increasing amount of research being conducted on the role of affective states relating to cognitive processes.  It is often assumed that the presence of a positive affect augments the amount of positive information and material recalled: positive words are more readily recalled as opposed to negative words.  Evidence points to the idea that mood can act as a retrieval cue, thus allowing positive material and words to be more readily recalled.  There are also data to suggest that when individuals are in good mood states, they are more likely to find the positive in positive material and in their interpretation of unknown and/or ambiguous objects and situations (Isen & Shalker, 1982).

To further investigate the impact of mood states, Isen and Shalker (1982) assessed induced mood states using success, failure, and finding a dime.  Along with these three mood induced groups, there was a control group.  Participants in the success and failure induced groups were told the purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of a rating task on a subsequent problem-solving test.  The groups were informed they would take the test first, complete a rating task, and then retake the test.  Subjects in the success condition were told they scored at the 92^nd percentile, while participants in the failure condition were told they scored in the 22^nd percentile.  Subjects in the dime and control conditions were told the reason for the experiment was to pre-test some tasks and material for a future study.  In the dime finding condition, the participants found a dime on the chair they were to sit in for the experiment.  All participants in this condition pointed

Research by Forgas and Bower (1987) showed evidence to support the idea that it is possible for people to be more sensitive to, and able to access, negative information more rapidly than positive information.  The study was designed to examine the effect that mood has on the formation of both impressions and memory.  Participants experienced either a happy or a sad mood induction procedure.  The two moods were induced by giving participants bogus feedback on how they scored on a measure of personality and social adjustment.  Participants in the happy mood were told that their performance on the bogus psychometrics was “good,” while participants in the sad mood condition were told that they performed “badly” on the test.  The participants were then given realistic descriptions of individuals that contained both positive and negative details.  The researchers then tested the recall of specific positive and negative details of the individuals presented; the impressions the participants in the study had formulated about the individuals presented was also recorded.   

Results of the study showed that the participants tended to make more errors in recall and recognition for material that was inconsistent with his or her current mood state.  The type of impressions that were formed and the judgments of the individuals presented also tended to be in accordance with the mood induction condition the participant belonged to (Forgas & Bower, 1987). 

Varner and Ellis (1998) evaluated mood congruent memory.  Mood congruent memory occurs when the memory for material that corresponds with an individual’s current mood state is retained and recalled more efficiently than information that contradicts the current mood state.  In other words, happy individuals are more likely to recall pleasant/happy information, while sad individuals are more likely to recall unpleasant/sad material. 

Varner and Ellis (1998) pre-tested the moods of participants using the Beck Depression Inventory.  Participants were randomly assigned into mood inducing conditions.  Two of the moods induced were depressed and neutral using a Velten procedure. Participants were instructed to read aloud a list consisting of twenty-five negative or neutral statements.  An example of a depressed statement would be “I feel sad today,” while an example of a neutral statement would be “Birds lay eggs.”  Before mood congruence was tested, participants were given the Depression Adjective Checklist to measure their moods and the effectiveness of the mood induction.  A reliable difference in these scores was found.  Selective processing and mood congruence were tested using two lists of ten words.  The first word list was composed of negative words, and the second list contained words related to writing a paper; the study also induced a schema mood for writing a paper. 

Results of the study showed that the recall of the words depended on the induction procedure used.  Participants who underwent the depressed-mood induction procedure recalled more negative, mood-congruent, words than organizational words related to paper writing.  Varner and Ellis (1998) provided important evidence on the effects of a negative emotional state on memory by showing how individuals in a negative mood state tended to recall mood-congruent information more efficiently. 

Ferraro, King, Ronning, Pekarski, and Risan (2003) used a musical mood induction procedure to investigate the effects of mood-induced states on tasks in lexical decision making.  Recent research has been performed to look at the role emotion plays in stimulus interpretation.  Regarding the mood-congruence effect, many studies solely take into consideration depressed populations; hence, these studies do not contain positive stimuli and affective states. 

Ferraro and colleagues (2003) induced either happy or sad mood in participants by means of music.  After listening to eight minutes of the musical selection for their specific mood induction group, participants were presented with a series of words on the computer screen.  They were then asked to determine whether the word was a real word or not.  It was hypothesized that participants in the sad mood grouping would respond quicker to sad words, while participants in the happy mood grouping would respond more rapidly to happy words.  The results supported the hypothesis: individuals who experienced the happy mood induction responded quicker to happy words versus sad words, while individuals who underwent the sad mood induction procedure responded faster to sad words in comparison to happy words.

Whereas Varner and Ellis (1998) and Ferraro, King, Ronning, Pekarski, and Risan (2003) induced mood, Mayer, Gaschke, Braverman, and Evans (1992) examined the effect of natural mood on judgments that were not relevant to the individual making them.  The object of the study was to look at the possible effect of mood congruence in naturally occurring pleasant and unpleasant moods.  Three individual studies were designed to look at the general effect of mood congruence.  The first study generalized the mood congruent effect to particular emotions.  In the second study, the mood congruent effect was again generalized, and the structure of pleasant and unpleasant cognitions were examined.  The third study looked at the mood congruent effect with a non-college population.  A general effect of mood congruence was found in the three studies.  Results also showed that the effects of mood congruence on judgment could be generalized to a variety of judgment tasks.

The natural moods involved in the three studies by Mayer and colleagues (1992) allowed for mood congruent judgment to be compared with levels of optimism and pessimism.  The results indicated that levels of optimism and pessimism do not affect mood congruent judgment, yet levels of optimism-pessimism are closely associated with mood.  While the first study supported the notion of mood congruent judgment, it also noted that levels of optimism and pessimism are far more correlated with mood in comparison to pleasant and unpleasant judgments.

            But not all researchers who sought to display mood congruent memory were able to do so.  Research by Mecklenbrauker and Hager (1984) investigated whether individuals learned material that correlated with rather than contradicted their current mood state: namely, the effects of mood on subsequent recall.  Moods were induced using the elation and depression statements from the Velten mood induction procedure, and recall for both the positive and negative aspects of a text were recorded.  There was found to be no difference between the recall of pleasant and unpleasant items from the story between the experimental conditions.  Explanation offered for this occurrence included the following: the unsuccessful maintenance of mood throughout the entirety of the study by the Velten, and also that work lists would be better than texts to display mood congruent memory.  The reasoning behind the latter explanation is the fact that text are highly organized.

            Hartig, Nyberg, Nilsson, and Gaerling (1999) used an environmental mood induction procedure to investigate mood congruence in three experiments.  Pictures of either natural or urban environments were used to induce mood in the first two experiments; the third experiment used the actual environment to induce a particular mood.  The natural environment was used to induce a positive mood, while the urban environment was designed to induce a negative mood.  Participants in all three experiments displayed moderate environmental mood induction effects; mood was measured by self-report.  All three experiments failed to provide evidence of the occurrence of mood congruent recall.  Possible explanations included the possibility that mood congruent effects do not occur with mild to moderate mood changes.

            The first of the three experiments investigated recall for words that described both positive and negative emotions.  The participants in the study were initially given a list of the positive and negative words and asked to rate the degree to which the words were self-referent.  Positive or negative moods where then induced using pictures of natural environments for the positive mood induction and pictures of urban environments for the negative mood.  After the pictures were viewed, the participants were asked to freely recall as many of the self-referent words they had seen earlier in the study.  After the free-recall exercise, participants were given an emotional-state scale to check the mood manipulation (Hartig et al., 1999). 

The purpose of the present study was to look at the Pollyanna Principle and whether it possessed the capacity to overshadow mood congruence.  The Pollyanna Principle clearly supports the processing dominance of positive material over negative material.  If Pollyannaism holds true, positive information should be recognized on a more consistent basis in comparison to negative information.  The Velten mood induction procedure (Velten, 1968) was used to induce positive, negative, and neutral moods.  Participants in the study then underwent two separate recognition tasks for affectively positive, neutral, and negative words using the computer program SuperLab. It was hypothesized that all three groups should score higher on the positive word recognition task in comparison to scores on the negative and neutral word recognition tasks, if the Pollyanna Principle is able to overshadow mood-congruence. 

There should be no difference in recognition scores for the positive, neutral, and negative word lists when the scores are examined according to the mood induction procedure experienced by the participants.  There should, however, be a difference between the recognition scores for the positive, neutral, and negative word lists when the treatment conditions of the participants are ignored.  The recognition scores should be significantly higher for affectively positive words in comparison to both affectively neutral and negative words.