Alice M. Isen’s research while affiliated with Cornell University and other places

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Publications (85)


Positive affect facilitates the effect of a warning on false memory in the DRM paradigm
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December 2014

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254 Reads

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13 Citations

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Alice M. Isen

Increasing evidence that positive affect enhances associative processing has lent weight to the idea that positive affect increases false memory for information that is thematically interrelated. Using the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm, we examined whether mild positive affect facilitates monitoring processes in modulating false memory for associate words. When participants in the warned condition – in contrast to those in the unwarned condition – were overtly warned about possible false recognition of the critical lure, we found that positive affect, compared to neutral affect, significantly enhanced monitoring through a warning and reduced false recognition. Signal detection analyses suggest that when a warning is provided, positive affect enhances sensitivity to discriminate list items from critical lures, but it does not shift the overall decision criterion. Taken together, we conclude that positive affect facilitates the effect of a warning in reducing false memories for semantic associates.

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Table 1 | Demographic, clinical, and psychosocial characteristics at baseline in the three trial populations
Table 3 | Similarities and differences in success in behavior change in the three populations according to negative and positive changes in psychosocial status
CONSORT Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials diagram. Flow of participants from enrollment to completion of the final follow-up assessment
A PATH model: simultaneous mediation and moderation of the positive affect–self-affirmation intervention. Controls for age, BMI, disease severity, gender, race, and trial clustering. Asterisks indicate strength of association: *P < .01, **P < .05. Plus signs indicate direct relationship: + Increased depression leads to increased stress; decreased depression leads to decreased stress. + Increased positive affect leads to increased self-efficacy; decreased positive affect leads to decreased self-efficacy. + Increased self-efficacy leads to increased behavior change; decreased self-efficacy leads to decreased behavior change. Minus signs indicate inverse relationship: − Increased social support leads to decreased stress; decreased social support leads to increased stress. − Increased positive affect leads to decreased stress; decreased positive affect leads to increased stress. − Increased stress leads to decreased self-efficacy; decreased stress leads to increased self-efficacy. Numbers indicate the following: 1 Increased interval medical events leads to decreased self-efficacy. 2 Increased positive affect intervention leads to increased behavior change. 2 Increased positive affect intervention leads to increased self-efficacy. 3 Increased positive affect intervention leads to decreased stress
Mediators and moderators of behavior change in patients with chronic cardiopulmonary disease: The impact of positive affect and self-affirmation

March 2014

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678 Reads

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51 Citations

Translational Behavioral Medicine

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Alice M Isen

Among patients with chronic cardiopulmonary disease, increasing healthy behaviors improves outcomes, but such behavior changes are difficult for patients to make and sustain over time. This study aims to demonstrate how positive affect and self-affirmation improve health behaviors compared with a patient education control group. The patient education (PE control) patients completed a behavioral contract, promising to increase their physical activity or their medication adherence and received an educational guide. In addition to the contract and guide, the positive affect/self-affirmation intervention (PA intervention) patients also learned to use positive affect and self-affirmation to facilitate behavior change. Follow-up was identical. In 756 patients, enrolled in three randomized trials, the PA intervention resulted in increased positive affect and more success in behavior change than the PE control (p < .01). Behavior-specific self-efficacy also predicted success (p < .01). Induction of positive affect played a critical role in buffering against the adverse behavioral consequences of stress. Patients who experienced either negative psychosocial changes (p < .05) or interval negative life events (p < .05) fared better with the PA intervention than without it. The PA intervention increased self-efficacy and promoted success in behavior change by buffering stress.


Positive affect moderates the impact of assortment size on choice satisfaction

December 2013

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229 Reads

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49 Citations

Journal of Retailing

The present research proposes that positive affect mitigates choice overload. Results from four studies show that whereas people in neutral affect feel less satisfied when choosing from a large relative to a small assortment, people in positive affect do not experience a decline in satisfaction and may even feel more satisfied when choosing from a large, relative to a small assortment. It is proposed that positive affect has these effects by shifting people's attention from the difficulty of the choice task to the quality of the assortment, as a basis for judgment of choice satisfaction.


Figure 1. EVOLVE Method for Behavioral Intervention Development.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Correction to Peterson et al. (2012).

January 2013

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1,883 Reads

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Reports an error in "Translating Basic Behavioral and Social Science Research to Clinical Application: The EVOLVE Mixed Methods Approach" by Janey C. Peterson, Susan Czajkowski, Mary E. Charlson, Alissa R. Link, Martin T. Wells, Alice M. Isen, Carol A. Mancuso, John P. Allegrante, Carla Boutin-Foster, Gbenga Ogedegbe and Jared B. Jobe ( Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , Advanced Online Publication, Sep 10, 2012, np). In the article a citation and reference were mistakenly omitted. Under the heading “Case Study: TBSRC,” subheading “Positive affect,” the first sentence should have read: “Positive affect (PA) is a mild feeling state induced by small events, such as receiving a small, unexpected gift, seeing a few minutes of comedy, or receiving a report of success on a small task (Ashby, Valentin, & Turken, 2002).” The corresponding reference is: Ashby, F., Valentin, V., & Turken, U. (2002). The effects of positive affect and arousal on working memory and executive attention: Neurobiology and computational models. In S. Moore & M. Oaksford (Eds.), Emotional Cognition: From Brain to Behaviour (pp. 245–287). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2012-24312-001 .) Objective: To describe a mixed-methods approach to develop and test a basic behavioral science-informed intervention to motivate behavior change in 3 high-risk clinical populations. Our theoretically derived intervention comprised a combination of positive affect and self-affirmation (PA/SA), which we applied to 3 clinical chronic disease populations. Method: We employed a sequential mixed methods model (EVOLVE) to design and test the PA/SA intervention in order to increase physical activity in people with coronary artery disease (post-percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]) or asthma (ASM) and to improve medication adherence in African Americans with hypertension (HTN). In an initial qualitative phase, we explored participant values and beliefs. We next pilot tested and refined the intervention and then conducted 3 randomized controlled trials with parallel study design. Participants were randomized to combined PA/SA versus an informational control and were followed bimonthly for 12 months, assessing for health behaviors and interval medical events. Results: Over 4.5 years, we enrolled 1,056 participants. Changes were sequentially made to the intervention during the qualitative and pilot phases. The 3 randomized controlled trials enrolled 242 participants who had undergone PCI, 258 with ASM, and 256 with HTN (n = 756). Overall, 45.1% of PA/SA participants versus 33.6% of informational control participants achieved successful behavior change (p = .001). In multivariate analysis, PA/SA intervention remained a significant predictor of achieving behavior change (p < .002, odds ratio = 1.66), 95% CI [1.22, 2.27], controlling for baseline negative affect, comorbidity, gender, race/ethnicity, medical events, smoking, and age. Conclusions: The EVOLVE method is a means by which basic behavioral science research can be translated into efficacious interventions for chronic disease populations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)


Translating Basic Behavioral and Social Science Research to Clinical Application: The EVOLVE Mixed Methods Approach

September 2012

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70 Reads

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51 Citations

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Objective: To describe a mixed-methods approach to develop and test a basic behavioral science-informed intervention to motivate behavior change in 3 high-risk clinical populations. Our theoretically derived intervention comprised a combination of positive affect and self-affirmation (PA/SA), which we applied to 3 clinical chronic disease populations. Method: We employed a sequential mixed methods model (EVOLVE) to design and test the PA/SA intervention in order to increase physical activity in people with coronary artery disease (post-percutaneous coronary intervention [PCI]) or asthma (ASM) and to improve medication adherence in African Americans with hypertension (HTN). In an initial qualitative phase, we explored participant values and beliefs. We next pilot tested and refined the intervention and then conducted 3 randomized controlled trials with parallel study design. Participants were randomized to combined PA/SA versus an informational control and were followed bimonthly for 12 months, assessing for health behaviors and interval medical events. Results: Over 4.5 years, we enrolled 1,056 participants. Changes were sequentially made to the intervention during the qualitative and pilot phases. The 3 randomized controlled trials enrolled 242 participants who had undergone PCI, 258 with ASM, and 256 with HTN (n = 756). Overall, 45.1% of PA/SA participants versus 33.6% of informational control participants achieved successful behavior change (p = .001). In multivariate analysis, PA/SA intervention remained a significant predictor of achieving behavior change (p < .002, odds ratio = 1.66), 95% CI [1.22, 2.27], controlling for baseline negative affect, comorbidity, gender, race/ethnicity, medical events, smoking, and age. Conclusions: The EVOLVE method is a means by which basic behavioral science research can be translated into efficacious interventions for chronic disease populations.


Positive affect improves working memory: Implications for controlled cognitive processing

August 2012

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681 Reads

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135 Citations

This study examined the effects of positive affect on working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM). Given that WM involves both storage and controlled processing and that STM primarily involves storage processing, we hypothesised that if positive affect facilitates controlled processing, it should improve WM more than STM. The results demonstrated that positive affect, compared with neutral affect, significantly enhanced WM, as measured by the operation span task. The influence of positive affect on STM, however, was weaker. These results suggest that positive affect enhances WM, a task that involves controlled processing, not just storage processing. Additional analyses of recall and processing times and accuracy further suggest that improved WM under positive affect is not attributable to motivational differences, but results instead from improved controlled cognitive processing.


Positive feelings facilitate working memory and complex decision making among older adults

July 2012

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1,222 Reads

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81 Citations

The impact of induced mild positive feelings on working memory and complex decision making among older adults (aged 63-85) was examined. Participants completed a computer administered card task in which participants could win money if they chose from "gain" decks and lose money if they chose from "loss" decks. Individuals in the positive-feeling condition chose better than neutral-feeling participants and earned more money overall. Participants in the positive-feeling condition also demonstrated improved working-memory capacity. These effects of positive-feeling induction have implications for affect theory, as well as, potentially, practical implications for people of all ages dealing with complex decisions.


Abbreviation: BP, blood pressure. a Measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies of Depression Scale (possible score range, 0-60); higher score means more depressive symptoms. b Affect measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (possible score range for each subscale, 10-50); higher score means more of that attribute. c Measured by the MOS (Medical Outcomes Study) Social Support Scale (possible score range, 0-100); higher score means more support. d Measured by the Perceived Stress Scale (possible score range, 0-40); higher score means more stress. e Measured by the Morisky Medication Adherence Questionnaire (possible range, 0-4); higher score means less medication adherence. Patients with a score greater than 1 were categorized as nonadherent.  
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Positive-Affect Intervention and Medication Adherence in Hypertensive African Americans

February 2012

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476 Reads

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246 Citations

Archives of Internal Medicine

Poor adherence explains poor blood pressure (BP) control; however African Americans suffer worse hypertension-related outcomes. This randomized controlled trial evaluated whether a patient education intervention enhanced with positive-affect induction and self-affirmation (PA) was more effective than patient education (PE) alone in improving medication adherence and BP reduction among 256 hypertensive African Americans followed up in 2 primary care practices. Patients in both groups received a culturally tailored hypertension self-management workbook, a behavioral contract, and bimonthly telephone calls designed to help them overcome barriers to medication adherence. Also, patients in the PA group received small gifts and bimonthly telephone calls to help them incorporate positive thoughts into their daily routine and foster self-affirmation. The main outcome measures were medication adherence (assessed with electronic pill monitors) and within-patient change in BP from baseline to 12 months. The baseline characteristics were similar in both groups: the mean BP was 137/82 mm Hg; 36% of the patients had diabetes; 11% had stroke; and 3% had chronic kidney disease. Based on the intention-to-treat principle, medication adherence at 12 months was higher in the PA group than in the PE group (42% vs 36%, respectively; P =.049). The within-group reduction in systolic BP (2.14 mm Hg vs 2.18 mm Hg; P = .98) and diastolic BP (-1.59 mm Hg vs -0.78 mm Hg; P = .45) for the PA group and PE group, respectively, was not significant. A PE intervention enhanced with PA led to significantly higher medication adherence compared with PE alone in hypertensive African Americans. Future studies should assess the cost-effectiveness of integrating such interventions into primary care. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00227175.


A Randomized Controlled Trial of Positive-Affect Induction to Promote Physical Activity After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

February 2012

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65 Reads

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175 Citations

Archives of Internal Medicine

Background Within 1 year after percutaneous coronary intervention, more than 20% of patients experience new adverse events. Physical activity confers a 25% reduction in mortality; however, physical activity is widely underused. Thus, there is a need for more powerful behavioral interventions to promote physical activity. Our objective was to motivate patients to achieve an increase in expenditure of 336 kcal/wk or more at 12 months as assessed by the Paffenbarger Physical Activity and Exercise Index. Methods Two hundred forty-two patients were recruited immediately after percutaneous coronary intervention between October 2004 and October 2006. Patients were randomized to 1 of 2 groups. The patient education (PE) control group (n = 118) (1) received an educational workbook, (2) received a pedometer, and (3) set a behavioral contract for a physical activity goal. The positive-affect/self-affirmation (PA) intervention group (n = 124) received the 3 PE control components plus (1) a PA workbook chapter, (2) bimonthly induction of PA by telephone, and (3) small mailed gifts. All patients were contacted with standardized bimonthly telephone follow-up for 12 months. Results Attrition was 4.5%, and 2.1% of patients died. Significantly more patients in the PA intervention group increased expenditure by 336 kcal/wk or more at 12 months, our main outcome, compared with the PE control group (54.9% vs 37.4%, P = .007). The PA intervention patients were 1.7 times more likely to reach the goal of a 336-kcal/wk or more increase by 12 months, controlling for demographic and psychosocial measures. In multivariate analysis, the PA intervention patients had nearly double the improvement in kilocalories per week at 12 months compared with the PE control patients (602 vs 328, P = .03). Conclusion Patients who receive PA intervention after percutaneous coronary intervention are able to achieve a sustained and clinically significant increase in physical activity by 12 months. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00248846


Figure 1. Flow diagram of study participants.
Figure 2. Paffenbarger Physical Activity and Exercise Index values at each follow-up for the entire sample.
Figure 3. Paffenbarger Physical Activity and Exercise Index values at each follow-up for patients who required urgent care for asthma or any hospitalization during the trial.
Table 3
Increasing Physical Activity in Patients With Asthma Through Positive Affect and Self-affirmation: A Randomized Trial

February 2012

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285 Reads

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71 Citations

Archives of Internal Medicine

Patients with asthma engage in less physical activity than peers without asthma. Protocols are needed to prudently increase physical activity in asthma patients. We evaluated whether an educational intervention enhanced with positive-affect induction and self-affirmation was more effective than the educational protocol alone in increasing physical activity in asthma patients. We conducted a randomized trial in New York City from September 28, 2004, through July 5, 2007; of 258 asthma patients, 252 completed the trial. At enrollment, control subjects completed a survey measuring energy expenditure, made a contract to increase physical activity, received a pedometer and an asthma workbook, and then underwent bimonthly follow-up telephone calls. Intervention patients received this protocol plus small gifts and instructions in fostering positive affect and self-affirmation. The main outcome was the within-patient change in energy expenditure in kilocalories per week from enrollment to 12 months with an intent-to-treat analysis. Mean (SD) energy expenditure at enrollment was 1767 (1686) kcal/wk among controls and 1860 (1633) kcal/wk among intervention patients (P = .65) and increased by 415 (95% CI, 76-754; P = .02) and 398 (95% CI, 145-652; P = .002) kcal/wk, respectively, with no difference between groups (P = .94). For both groups, energy expenditure was sustained through 12 months. No adverse events were attributed to the trial. In multivariate analysis, increased energy expenditure was associated with less social support, decreased depressive symptoms, more follow-up calls, use of the pedometer, fulfillment of the contract, and the intervention among patients who required urgent asthma care (all P < .10, 2-sided test). A multiple-component protocol was effective in increasing physical activity in asthma patients, but an intervention to increase positive affect and self-affirmation was not effective within this protocol. The intervention may have had some benefit, however, in the subgroup of patients who required urgent asthma care during the trial. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00195117.


Citations (77)


... In designing our studies, we followed the principles of converging operations often used in experimental design (see Isen & Erez, 2007). While we found consistent effects whether manipulating rudeness using different sources (e.g., supervisors, customers), operationalization (e.g., email from boss; in-person manipulation), or content (e.g., unfairly displacing blame, doubting competence), our manipulations follow a line of research that operationalize rudeness as written or verbal insults (e.g., T. Foulk et al., 2016;C. ...

Reference:

Rudeness and Team Performance: Adverse Effects via Member Social Value Orientation and Coordinative Team Processes
Some Measurement Issues in the Study of Affect
  • Citing Chapter
  • November 2006

... In practical terms, the findings that positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) affect performance imply that employee well-being and work performance can be improved by reducing negative affect and promoting positive affect. Prior research has predominantly indicated that positive emotions can enhance employee task performance (e.g., Erez & Isen, 2002;Tsai et al., 2007). Some studies have additionally demonstrated that positive emotions can enhance divergent thinking, remote association tests, and eliminate pain-induced task performance disorders (e.g., Baas et al., 2008;Boselie et al., 2014;Tidikis et al., 2017). ...

The Influence of Positive Affect on the Components of Expectancy Motivation

Journal of Applied Psychology

... Nonetheless, System 2's responses will likely remain anchored on initial impressions [18,20,27,48]. The relative contribution of each system is determined by situational factors [51,52] and the decision-maker [21,51,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]. ...

Influence of Positive Affect on the Subjective Utility of Gains and Losses: It Is Just Not Worth the Risk

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

... However, some studies do not suggest detrimental effects per se; instead, they showed differentiated effects on the cognitive processing style depending on valence. Amongst others, positive emotions are associated with a greater scope of attention and creative thought processes but also with a heuristic and assimilative top-down way of thinking (e.g., Fiedler et al., 2003;Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005;Isen et al., 1987;Schwarz, 1990). Negative emotions, on the other hand, are associated with a more analytical, bottom-up way of thinking but also with a narrow scope of attention (e.g., Fiedler et al., 2003;Schwarz, 1990). ...

PA facilitates creative problem solving

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

... The dissociation between the linear and nonlinear categorization rules in PD patients is supported by a recent theory of category learning put forward by Ashby and colleagues (Ashby et al., , 1999aAshby et al., , 1999b). This theory, called competition between verbal and implicit system (COVIS), posits that two separate systems are involved in learning categorization rules. ...

The effects of endogenous dopamine on category learning.
  • Citing Article
  • January 1999

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

... Importantly, fear responses are associated with cognitive closure and biased information processing. For instance, threatening information is prioritized, selective recall of fearrelated information is facilitated, and receptivity to novel ideas is obstructed (Clore et al., 1994;Isen, 1990;LeDoux, 1996). Potentially, very intense fear even induces cognitive inflexibility (Kruglanski, 2004) and can lead to aggressive reactions (Eibl-Eibesfeldt & Sütterlin, 1990;Lazarus, 1991). ...

The influence of positive affect on cognitive organization: Implications for education
  • Citing Article
  • January 1987

... Yine başka bir tanım ise; (Grieve ve Mahar, 2010: 945) kişinin, karşısındakinin duygularını kendisine hizmet edecek bir çerçevede, kendi yararına kullanma durumundan bahsetmektedir. Buss (1987Buss ( : 1218 ise; bireyin başkalarını bilinçli olarak etkilemesi ve onlar üzerinde duygusal istismara başvurmasını manipülasyon olarak tanımlamıştır. Bunlarla birlikte; Yılmaz, (2018: 451) ise manipülasyonu; eksik, kandırmaya dönük, hatta taciz düzeyinde stratejiler ile başkalarının algısını veya davranışlarında değişim yapmayı amaçlayan psikolojik bir etki faaliyeti olarak ifade edilmiştir. ...

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
  • Citing Article

... Reducing search costs expands a consumer choice set, thereby increasing the odds of incidental exposure to goods the consumer wasn't necessarily searching for. Research has shown incidental exposure to unfamiliar goods primes exploratory behavior which more educated person desire (Spassova et al. 2012). ...

The difference novelty makes: Incidental exposure to unfamiliar stimuli primes exploratory behavior
  • Citing Article
  • January 2012

Advances in consumer research. Association for Consumer Research (U.S.)

... Individual employees' creativity has been associated with the influence of leadership styles Malik et al., 2020). Previous research shows abused employees are less motivated to engage in creative activities at work (e.g., Amabile et al., 2005;Isen, 2004;Liu et al., 2012;Liu et al., 2016;Malik et al., 2020;Zhang & Zhou, 2014). In contrast, uplifting styles of leadership can reinforce creativity or at least not decrease individual employees' inclination to create new ideas (e.g., . ...

Positive affect facilitates thinking and problem solving
  • Citing Article
  • April 2004

... Berthoz (2003) emphasizes that emotion plays a fundamental, but not consciously perceived, role in the pre-categorization of the stimuli that guide cognitive examination. For Gohary et al. (2016), feelings and emotions are the cornerstone of all experiences, as they facilitate cognitive processes and help individuals make sense of the world (Isen, 2009). In addition, human affective states influence one's motivations and behaviors (Chuah & Yu, 2021;Isen, 2009). ...

A Role for Neuropsychology in Understanding the Facilitating Influence of Positive Affect on Social Behavior and Cognitive Processes
  • Citing Article
  • January 2012