Description: Over the past 20 years, the number of published papers on mood and emotion has mushroomed. Along with this rapid expansion of new research has come new ways of thinking about affect and its impact, and the number and complexity of relevant theoretical models has grown. Most of this expansion has taken place within social psychology as investigators interested in social cognition have expanded their sights to include affective factors. One cost of this progress, however, is that it has become increasingly difficult to keep up, even for those most intensely involved in the research. Against such a background, this book becomes very valuable.

The editors decided that a single source was needed in which competing theorists pared down their messages to the bare essentials, and they complemented that with concise presentations of studies that spoke directly to a common core of key questions-how does affect influence memory, judgment, information processing, and creativity? Each contributor indicated how their model addressed each of these four issues, and how their explanations differed from those of competitors. Finally, each theorist addressed three questions posed by the other contributors. These questions addressed theoretical ambiguities and gaps perceived by the other contributors. In this way, the book represents not only a single authoritative source for current theories of affect and information processing, but it also gives the reader a chance to listen in on a conversation among the theorists in the form of questions and answers.

The editors were presented with a series of concise contributions that follow the same outline, and that address the same issues. This volume is awelcome antidote to the increasing tendency for edited volumes to drown the reader in material that is only loosely connected to some general theme. Leonard Martin and Gerald Clore are to be congratulated for this novel project aimed at clear and timely communication of the hottest new ideas about hot social cognition. Students as well as senior researchers will benefit from the clarity and brevity which make this well-organized and accessible book both enlightening and useful.

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