Introducing the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (OASIS)

Abstract

We introduce the Open Affective Standardized Image Set (OASIS), an open-access online stimulus set containing 900 color images depicting a broad spectrum of themes, including humans, animals, objects, and scenes, along with normative ratings on two affective dimensions—valence (i.e., the degree of positive or negative affective response that the image evokes) and arousal (i.e., the intensity of the affective response that the image evokes). The OASIS images were collected from online sources, and valence and arousal ratings were obtained in an online study (total N = 822). The valence and arousal ratings covered much of the circumplex space and were highly reliable and consistent across gender groups. OASIS has four advantages: (a) the stimulus set contains a large number of images in four categories; (b) the data were collected in 2015, and thus OASIS features more current images and reflects more current ratings of valence and arousal than do existing stimulus sets; (c) the OASIS database affords users the ability to interactively explore images by category and ratings; and, most critically, (d) OASIS allows for free use of the images in online and offline research studies, as they are not subject to the copyright restrictions that apply to the International Affective Picture System. The OASIS images, along with normative valence and arousal ratings, are available for download from www.benedekkurdi.com/#oasis or https://db.tt/yYTZYCga.