Mood-state dependent retrieval

Biological Parallel

Divers learning tasks underwater recall them better underwater than on land—memory encodes physiological state as retrieval context because bodily conditions predict situational demands. When current mood matches encoding mood, retrieval improves because the brain treats state-similarity as evidence you're in analogous situations. Mood-dependent retrieval is state-based indexing: the body's condition serves as a contextual tag for which memories are currently relevant.