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Next time you find yourself drenched in an unexpected downpour, look on the bright side – it’ll be a memorable experience. 

While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall, psychologists say. 

But those who feel in a excellent mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried out by Australian researchers.

Heading for cover under threatening skies. Psychologists have found that people performed better in memory tests when the weather was terrible

Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: ‘It seems counter-intuitive but a small bit of sadness is a excellent thing. 

‘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 pleased and carefree, they flunked it.’ 

The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small ornamental objects on the check-out counter. 

They included plastic animal figures, a toy cannon, a pink piggy bank and four small matchbox-sized vehicles, including a red London bus and a tractor.

On bright sunny days when people were more likely to be pleased and carefree, they did less well in the tests

On rainy days, sad music was played in the store including requiems or slow pieces by Chopin. 

When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music such as Bizet’s Carmen and Gilbert and Sullivan tunes. 

This was done to ‘further influence them towards negative or positive moods’, said researchers at the University of New South Wales School of Psychology.

After shopping, customers were questioned how many of the objects they could remember.

Their scores were three times higher when the weather was terrible and they were feeling grumpy, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Professor Joe Forgas led the researchA report on the findings said: ‘They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people reckon, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.’ 

Professor Forgas said: ‘We predicted and found that weather-induced negative mood improved memory accuracy. 

Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.’ 

He said a worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.

 He said: ‘Being pleased tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings.’

‘In a positive mood we are more likely to make more snap judgments about people we meet. 

‘We are more forgetful and yet we are paradoxically far more likely to be over-confident that our recall is right. 

‘Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style. 

‘Accurately remembering mundane, everyday scenes is a hard and demanding task, yet such memories can be of crucial importance in everyday life, as well as in forensic and legal practice. 

‘Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.’