Abstract

*Andrew P. Smith, PhD

ABSTRACT

Background: In many studies, mood and cognitive performance are measured. However, the associations between them are rarely examined. In the present study, a number of different mood states covering different time periods were recorded, and associations with measures from focused attention and categoric search tasks were examined. The effects of age were also investigated. Method: Two hundred and seventy staff or students (159 females, 113 males; mean age 35.4 years, age range 17-65 years) from Cardiff University were recruited into the study. Two hundred and fifty had complete data and they were included in the present analyses. Participants carried out a focused attention two-choice reaction time task and a categoric search task. The outcomes analysed here were mean reaction times, lapses of attention, errors, the speed of encoding new information, response organisation, and selective attention measures. Results: Measures from the profile of fatigue-related symptoms (emotional distress, cognitive difficulty, fatigue and somatic symptoms) covering the last three months were not significantly correlated with the performance measures. A negative mood in the last week was significantly associated with errors in the two tasks. Mood at the time of testing was not associated with the performance measures. Older participants performed the tasks more slowly and accurately than younger individuals. Conclusion: Measures of mood were largely not significantly correlated with the performance measures. The exception was negative mood over the last week, with high negative mood scores being associated with more errors. Age had a significant effect on performance, and different speed-error profiles were observed for older and younger participants.