Technology and Reflection: Mood and Memory Mechanisms for Well Being
BackgroundWe report a psychologically motivated intervention to explore Technology Mediated Reflection (TMR) the process of systematically reviewing rich digital records of past personal experiences. Although TMR benefits well being, and is increasingly being deployed, we know little about how one's mood when using TMR influences these benefits. We use theories of memory and emotion regulation to motivate hypotheses about the relationship between reflection, mood, and well being when using technology. We test these hypotheses in a large scale month long real world deployment using a web based application, MoodAdaptor. MoodAdaptor prompted participants to reflect on positive or negative memories depending on current mood.MethodsWe evaluated how mood and memory interact during written reflection and measured effects on well being. We analyzed qualitative and quantitative data from 128 participants who generated 11157 mood evaluations, 5051 logfiles, 256 surveys, and 20 interviews.ResultsTMR regulated emotion; when participants reflected on memories with valences opposite to their current mood, their mood became more neutral. However this did not impact overall well being. Our findings also clarify underlying TMR mechanisms. Moods and memories competed with each other; when positive moods prevailed over negative memories, people demonstrated classic mechanisms shown in prior work to influence well being. When negative moods prevailed over positive memories, memories became negatively tainted.ConclusionsOur results have implications for new well being interventions and technologies that capitalize on the interconnectedness of memory and emotion.
Psychology of well being