Effect of learned helplessness on explicit memory bias

Based on Mood-congruency hypothesis and Bower theory، individuals selectively process pleasant and unpleasant emotional information. The main objective of the present study was to determine the effect of learned helplessness on the retrieval of unpleasant memory in individuals that are exposed to recurrent failure to solve problem. Forty-five participants (20 males and 25 females) took part in the study. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the three groups: experimental، control، and waiting. To begin with، the Persian version of the Carver and White''s BIS/BAS scale (1994)، Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) test، and Attributional style questionnaire (ASQ)، were filled out by the participants. For all subjects، emotional words were presented for memorization. Then، participants in the experimental and control groups received the same problems. Participants in the experimental group received response-noncontingent feedback for their performance، the control group did not receive any feedback and the waiting group did not respond to any problem. Reaction time (RT)، response bias (ß) and sensitivity (d'') for emotional word recognition was calculated using signal detection theory. No significant differences were observed for reaction time. However، response bias (ß) and sensitivity (d'') were different in the three groups. The results indicated that individuals who had exposure to learned helplessness، used more liberal strategy for negative word recognition.