The Effect of Learned Helplessness on Explicit Memory Bias in Experts and Novices

Based on mood-congruency hypothesis and Bower theory، individuals selectively process pleasant and unpleasant emotional information. Learned helplessness can lead to negative mood. Certain individuals including experts، are further exposed to learning helplessness. The main objective of the present study was to determine the effect of learned helplessness on explicit memory bias in experts and novices. Ninety subjects including 45 experts (23 male and 22 female) and 45 novices (24 male and 21 female) participated in our study. Subjects of each group were randomly assigned to one of the three groups including experimental (n=15)، control (n=15) and waiting list (n=15) groups. At first، the Persian version of the Carver and White''s BIS/BAS scale، self-assessment Manikin (SAM) test as well as attribution style questionnaire (ASQ)، were completed by participants. For all subjects، emotional words were presented for memorization. Then subjects in experimental group and control groups were confronted to similar problems. Subjects in experimental group received a negative response-no contingent feedback for their performance. Control group did not receive any feedback and the waiting list group did nothing. Reaction time (RT)، response bias (ß) and sensitivity (d'') for emotional word recognition were calculated using the signal detection theory. Expert individuals who were exposed to learned helplessness showed significant difference compared to the other groups in terms of response bias (ß) but no significant differences for RT. Results indicated that expert individuals who were exposed to learned helplessness used more liberal strategies upon negative word recognition.