Information that is affectively congruent to the contents of a memory node are more accessible to it. In this model, what is available to become conscious thought is dependent on the links between nodes that are currently activated above a threshold limit, and other nodes that are affectively congruent. A node is activated above threshold by input from other nodes. This spreading activation of nodes is conceived of as being responsible for the coding and later retrieval of new information. That emotion nodes are so strongly inter-linked with memory nodes is used to account for the fact that cognition, and resultant behavior, are often found to be congruent with induced or measured mood.
Mood priming is the term used to describe the selective likelihood of a mood influencing cognition.
Those memory nodes that are linked to a currently active emotion node are primed, and are more easily accessed than others. Experimental research into the relationship between mood and evaluation of others support the idea that these links are based on affective congruence. One such experiment induced a mood in subjects, by manipulating feedback about their performance on a bogus test. The happy people were significantly more likely than the sad people to make positive judgments of people, when presented with descriptions of people to evaluate. Flame wars most often erupt amoung strangers.