Elementary motion perception interferes with film-induced emotions

Abstract

Many authors showed that dynamism in images increases emotional responses whether they were objectively or subjectively measured (Simons, Detenber, Reiss, & Shults, 2000; Ravaja, 2004). The aim was to investigate the effects of three elementary motions on emotional films' perception, given that these motions involved changes in the perception of static emotional images (Chafi, Schiaratura, & Rusinek, 2012) and in the memorization of emotional words (Podevin, Chafi, Rusinek, & Békaert, 2012). Participants were shown short films validated by Schaefer, Nils, Sanchez, and Philippot (2010) in which were inlaid motion patterns from Chafi et al. (2012). Results indicated that a wave-like, translational and parabolic motion do not have the same effects on emotional self-reports. More precisely, data suggest that the translational motion increased positive film-induced feelings of happiness and agitation compared to the parabolic motion. Further research shall be directed towards more objective ways of investigation. Copyright: © 2014 The Author(s).