A preliminary set of text-driven scripts for emotional imagery elicitation

Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

Major

Psychology

Minor

History

2nd Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

2nd Student Major

Psychology

2nd Student Minor

Criminal Justice

3rd Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Graduate

4th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Graduate

5th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Freshmen

5th Student Major

Psychology

5th Student Minor

Biology

6th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

6th Student Major

Psychology

List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)

David Herring, PhD.

Presentation Format

Poster Presentation

Abstract/Description

Emotion science hinges on stimulus development representative of emotional life (i.e., ecologically valid by varying emotional content) that have well-established normative data. These normative data are typically measured via pleasantness and activation/arousal ratings toward the emotional stimulus. There are well-established normative ratings for emotional scenes, videos, faces, and audio scripts (Coan & Allen, 2007). There are, however, few normative data available for eliciting emotion with imagery (Bradley & Lang, 2007). Here, we present preliminary data from a norming study. We had two foci: 1) to fill the gap in the emotional imagery literature by developing text-driven scripts varying in emotion content and arousal and 2) to develop a substantial set of imagery scripts to use in an upcoming emotional imagery psycho-physiological study. Thirty five students were presented 133 text-driven scripts varying in hedonic valence. That is, hedonic valence consistent of seven categories: erotica, reward, relaxation, contamination, embarrassment, threat, and mundane/neutral. As predicted, from pleasant to neutral conditions arousal ratings significantly declined and, from neutral to unpleasant, arousal ratings significantly rose (p < .001). Further, from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant, pleasantness ratings significantly rose across hedonic valence (p < .001). Thus, the typical U-shaped and linear patterns for arousal and pleasantness ratings, respectively, were found across seven categories of hedonic valence. These data suggest that our text-driven scripts are evoking the targeted appetitive and defensive states during emotional imagery.

Keywords: Imagery, Emotion, Text-driven Scripts, Arousal, Hedonic Valence, Norming Study

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Psychology: Projects In-Process

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A preliminary set of text-driven scripts for emotional imagery elicitation

Emotion science hinges on stimulus development representative of emotional life (i.e., ecologically valid by varying emotional content) that have well-established normative data. These normative data are typically measured via pleasantness and activation/arousal ratings toward the emotional stimulus. There are well-established normative ratings for emotional scenes, videos, faces, and audio scripts (Coan & Allen, 2007). There are, however, few normative data available for eliciting emotion with imagery (Bradley & Lang, 2007). Here, we present preliminary data from a norming study. We had two foci: 1) to fill the gap in the emotional imagery literature by developing text-driven scripts varying in emotion content and arousal and 2) to develop a substantial set of imagery scripts to use in an upcoming emotional imagery psycho-physiological study. Thirty five students were presented 133 text-driven scripts varying in hedonic valence. That is, hedonic valence consistent of seven categories: erotica, reward, relaxation, contamination, embarrassment, threat, and mundane/neutral. As predicted, from pleasant to neutral conditions arousal ratings significantly declined and, from neutral to unpleasant, arousal ratings significantly rose (p < .001). Further, from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant, pleasantness ratings significantly rose across hedonic valence (p < .001). Thus, the typical U-shaped and linear patterns for arousal and pleasantness ratings, respectively, were found across seven categories of hedonic valence. These data suggest that our text-driven scripts are evoking the targeted appetitive and defensive states during emotional imagery.

Keywords: Imagery, Emotion, Text-driven Scripts, Arousal, Hedonic Valence, Norming Study