Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.

Although many studies revealed that emotions and their dynamics have a profound impact on cognition and behavior, it has proven difficult to unobtrusively measure emotions. In the current study, our objective was to distinguish different experiences elicited by audiovisual stimuli designed to evoke...

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Main Authors: Esther Eijlers, Ale Smidts, Maarten A S Boksem
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211496
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author Esther Eijlers
Ale Smidts
Maarten A S Boksem
author_facet Esther Eijlers
Ale Smidts
Maarten A S Boksem
author_sort Esther Eijlers
collection DOAJ
description Although many studies revealed that emotions and their dynamics have a profound impact on cognition and behavior, it has proven difficult to unobtrusively measure emotions. In the current study, our objective was to distinguish different experiences elicited by audiovisual stimuli designed to evoke particularly happy, sad, fear and disgust emotions, using electroencephalography (EEG) and a multivariate approach. We show that we were able to classify these emotional experiences well above chance level. Importantly, we retained all the information (frequency and topography) present in the data. This allowed us to interpret the differences between emotional experiences in terms of component psychological processes such as attention and arousal that are known to be associated with the observed activation patterns. In addition, we illustrate how this method of classifying emotional experiences can be applied on a moment-by-moment basis in order to track dynamic changes in the emotional response over time. The application of our approach may be of value in many contexts in which the experience of a given stimulus or situation changes over time, ranging from clinical to consumption settings.
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spelling doaj.art-ae985bf0729046e8bf683c9bc768cc9b2022-12-21T21:55:31ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-01142e021149610.1371/journal.pone.0211496Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.Esther EijlersAle SmidtsMaarten A S BoksemAlthough many studies revealed that emotions and their dynamics have a profound impact on cognition and behavior, it has proven difficult to unobtrusively measure emotions. In the current study, our objective was to distinguish different experiences elicited by audiovisual stimuli designed to evoke particularly happy, sad, fear and disgust emotions, using electroencephalography (EEG) and a multivariate approach. We show that we were able to classify these emotional experiences well above chance level. Importantly, we retained all the information (frequency and topography) present in the data. This allowed us to interpret the differences between emotional experiences in terms of component psychological processes such as attention and arousal that are known to be associated with the observed activation patterns. In addition, we illustrate how this method of classifying emotional experiences can be applied on a moment-by-moment basis in order to track dynamic changes in the emotional response over time. The application of our approach may be of value in many contexts in which the experience of a given stimulus or situation changes over time, ranging from clinical to consumption settings.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211496
spellingShingle Esther Eijlers
Ale Smidts
Maarten A S Boksem
Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.
PLoS ONE
title Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.
title_full Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.
title_fullStr Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.
title_full_unstemmed Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.
title_short Implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics.
title_sort implicit measurement of emotional experience and its dynamics
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211496
work_keys_str_mv AT esthereijlers implicitmeasurementofemotionalexperienceanditsdynamics
AT alesmidts implicitmeasurementofemotionalexperienceanditsdynamics
AT maartenasboksem implicitmeasurementofemotionalexperienceanditsdynamics