Mood impact on effort-related cardiovascular reactivity depends on task context: Evidence from a task with an unfixed performance standard

• We examined task-context dependent mood impact on cardiovascular reactivity.
• Mood valence was manipulated by means of autobiographical recall.
• Manipulation checks were used to manipulate task context.
• PEP and HR reactivity were jointly determined by mood valence and task context.

Gendolla and colleagues have consistently found that negative mood leads to higher effort-related cardiovascular reactivity than positive mood if performers can choose their own performance standard (Gendolla et al., 2001; Gendolla and Krüsken, 2001a, 2002a,b). However, an integration of motivational intensity theory with the mood literature suggests that the impact of mood on cardiovascular activity should vary with task context. In a 2 (task context: demand vs. reward) × 2 (mood valence: negative vs. positive) between-persons design, participants performed a memory task without a fixed performance standard. The results showed the expected interaction. Positive mood led to higher effort mobilization—reflected by increased pre-ejection period and heart rate reactivity—than negative mood if participants had answered questions about task reward before performing the task. If participants had responded to questions about task demand, the pattern was reversed. These results extend and add to preceding research that has demonstrated that mood impact on effort-related cardiovascular activity is not stable but depends on task context.