Cloudy days may mean brighter brains

William Atkins
Saturday, 18 April 2009 20:20

Science - Health

According to Australian researchers, people have better memories when the weather is dreary than when it is bright. Are we more interested in playing outside and less focused on the job at hand? Could be!


The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. It was headed by Australian psychologist and Scientia professor Joseph "Joe" P. Forgas, from the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)

According to the April 14, 2009 University of New South Wales (UNSW) article Memory better in bad weather: research, “There's an upside to feeling down when the weather is gloomy: your memory is far more accurate than it is on bright and sunny days, an intriguing new study suggests.”

Dr. Forgas states, "It seems counter-intuitive but a little bit of sadness turns out to be a good thing.” [UNSW]

He added, "People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they were in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy and carefree, they flunked it."

Forgas and fellow UNSW colleagues carried out the study with 73 customers of a store in Sydney, Australia.

The researchers set up ten small ornamental object (such as a toy cannon, pink savings pig, red London bus, tractor) on the check-out counter.

On dreary (rainy) days, sad music was placed in the story, but on bright (sunny) days happy-sounding music was played. The music was intended to induce a more negative mood (on rainy days) and a more positive mood (on sunny day) to the customers.

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