Applicability of emotion recognition and induction methods to study the behavior of programmers

Abstract

Recent studies in the field of software engineering have shown that positive emotions can increase and negative emotions decrease the productivity of programmers. In the field of affective computing, many methods and tools to recognize the emotions of computer users were proposed. However, it has not been verified yet which of them can be used to monitor the emotional states of software developers. The paper describes a study carried out on a group of 35 participants to determine which of these methods can be used during programming. During the study, data from multiple sensors that are commonly used in methods of emotional recognition were collected. The participants were extensively questioned about the sensors' invasiveness during programming. This allowed us to determine which of them are applicable in the work of programmers. In addition, it was verified which methods are suitable for use in the work environment and which are only suitable in the laboratory. Moreover, three methods for inducing negative emotions have been proposed, and their effectiveness has been verified.