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

Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

Major

Psychology

Minor

Criminal Justice

2nd Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

2nd Student Major

Psychology

2nd Student Minor

History

3rd Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Graduate

3rd Student Major

Psychology

4th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Freshmen

4th Student Major

Psychology

4th Student Minor

Biology

5th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Graduate

5th Student Major

Psychology

6th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Senior

6th Student Major

Psychology

7th Student Academic Level at Time of Presentation

Faculty/Staff

List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)

David R. Herring

Presentation Format

Poster Presentation

Abstract/Description

It is essential in emotion science to have standardized stimuli to aid in replication as well as the elicitation of basic defensive and appetitive states. There are numerous standardized stimulus sets for eliciting emotion perception including scenes, faces, videos, and audio scripts (Coan & Allen, 2007). These stimuli are typically rated subjectively on pleasantness and activation/arousal scales. There are, however, few studies that provide normative pleasantness and arousal ratings from scripts useful in predicting emotional states for future studies on emotional imagery. The goals of the current study were to add to the literature 1) standardized pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant text-driven scripts rated on pleasantness and arousal, and 2) a more substantial set of stimuli that could be useful in electrophysiological studies requiring large amounts of experimental trials. Thirty-five undergraduate students were presented 133 text-driven scripts, which were classified as pleasant (i.e., excitement, erotica, relaxation), neutral, or unpleasant (i.e., contamination, embarrassment, threatening). While reading the script, participants actively imagined themselves in the presented scenario and then provided pleasantness and arousal ratings. As expected, from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant conditions there was a positive linear trend with pleasantness ratings (p< .001). Further, from pleasant to neutral conditions arousal ratings declined, whereas from neutral to unpleasant conditions arousal ratings rose. Thus, we found a significant quadratic trend for the arousal ratings (p< .001). Taken together, these preliminary data indicate that these novel text-driven scripts are eliciting the predicted emotional responses.

Keywords: imagery, emotion, text-driven scripts, arousal, hedonic valence, norming study

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Sigma Xi Poster Competition (Juried)

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

It is essential in emotion science to have standardized stimuli to aid in replication as well as the elicitation of basic defensive and appetitive states. There are numerous standardized stimulus sets for eliciting emotion perception including scenes, faces, videos, and audio scripts (Coan & Allen, 2007). These stimuli are typically rated subjectively on pleasantness and activation/arousal scales. There are, however, few studies that provide normative pleasantness and arousal ratings from scripts useful in predicting emotional states for future studies on emotional imagery. The goals of the current study were to add to the literature 1) standardized pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant text-driven scripts rated on pleasantness and arousal, and 2) a more substantial set of stimuli that could be useful in electrophysiological studies requiring large amounts of experimental trials. Thirty-five undergraduate students were presented 133 text-driven scripts, which were classified as pleasant (i.e., excitement, erotica, relaxation), neutral, or unpleasant (i.e., contamination, embarrassment, threatening). While reading the script, participants actively imagined themselves in the presented scenario and then provided pleasantness and arousal ratings. As expected, from pleasant to neutral to unpleasant conditions there was a positive linear trend with pleasantness ratings (p< .001). Further, from pleasant to neutral conditions arousal ratings declined, whereas from neutral to unpleasant conditions arousal ratings rose. Thus, we found a significant quadratic trend for the arousal ratings (p< .001). Taken together, these preliminary data indicate that these novel text-driven scripts are eliciting the predicted emotional responses.

Keywords: imagery, emotion, text-driven scripts, arousal, hedonic valence, norming study