Psychophysiology and Entertainment Experiences

1. THE CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION RESEARCH H E L S I N K I S C H O O L O F E C O N O M I C S Psychophysiology and Entertainment Experiences Niklas Ravaja, Ph.D. M.I.N.D. Lab/CKIR, Helsinki School of Economics, Finland email: ravaja@hse.fi

2. Emotions (I) • Emotions are biologically based action dispositions that have an important role in the determination of behavior (e.g., when selecting and using entertainment media) • Three components • Subjective experience • Physiological activation • Expressive behavior

3. Aroused Alert Excited Energetic Peppy Joyful Enthusiastic Angry Aggressive Fearful Anxious Arousal Sad Dissatisfied Disappointed Happy Satisfied Displeasure Pleasure Tired Bored Dull Helpless Relaxed Calm Inactive Idle Passive Valence–Arousal Circumplex Model of Emotion

4. Psychophysiological Measures of Arousal (Bodily Activation) • Electrodermal activity (EDA) • The primary psychophysiological index of arousal • As people experience arousal their sympathetic nervous system is activated, resulting in increased sweat gland activity and skin conductance • Heart rate (HR; or interbeat interval, IBI) • HR accelerates with increasing arousal during active coping tasks (sympathetic nervous system) • HR decelerates with increasing attentional engagement (parasympathetic nervous system)

5. Psychophysiological Measures of Emotional Valence • Facial electromyography (EMG) • Provides a direct measure of the electrical activity associated with facial muscle contractions (an important form of emotional expression) • The primary psychophysiological index of hedonic valence (pleasant vs. unpleasant) • Zygomaticus major (cheek) muscle area • An index of positive emotions • Corrugator supercilii (brow) muscle area • An index of negative emotions • Orbicularis oculi (periocular) muscle area • An index of positively valenced high-arousal emotions • Levator labii superioris muscle area • An index of disgust

6. Facial electromyography (EMG)

7. Advantages of Psychophysiological Measures over Self-Report when Studying Entertainment Experiences • More objective data (not dependent on language and memory) • Measurement can be performed continuously during media use (500 samples/second) • Measurements may provide information on emotional and attentional responses that are not available to conscious awareness

8. Problems Associated with Psychophysiological Measures • Interpretation is dependent on the research paradigm and even the content of the messages • Interpretation of heart rate (HR) • HR indexes (primarily) arousal during active coping tasks (e.g., playing a video game) • Sympathetic nervous system activity causes the heart to speed up • HR indexes arousal during sensory rejection tasks (i.e., attention to internal stimuli), such as mental arithmetic and emotional imagery • HR indexes attentional engagement during sensory intake tasks (i.e., attention to external stimuli), such as watching a film • Parasympathetic nervous system activity causes the heart to slow down • However, specific highly arousing film stimuli (e.g., threatening stimuli, film clips depicting highly exciting sports games) may elicit cardiac acceleration, not deceleration! Ravaja, N. (2004). Contributions of psychophysiology to media research: Review and recommendations. Media Psychology, 6, 193-235.

9. Study 1 • Six suboptimally presented emotional facial images were embedded in 50-s video messages (participants were not consciously aware of the emotional facial images) • A 4 (Emotional Facial Image [happy face, angry face, neutral face, no-face control])  2 (A Priori Message Valence [positive, negative])  2 (A Priori Message Arousal [low, high]) within-subjects design was used • Tonic orbicularis oculi EMG (periocular muscle) activity was higher • during a priori positive messages compared to a priori negative messages, F(1, 37) = 10.22, p < .01 • during messages with suboptimal happy facial primes compared to messages with neutral or no facial primes, F(1, 37) = 6.76, p < .05 • It is of note, however, that the eye blink component of the startle response is also measured by recording phasic EMG activity at the orbicularis oculi (a latency of 25-35 ms)! Ravaja, N., Kallinen, K., Saari, T., & Keltikangas-Järvinen, L. (2004). Suboptimal exposure to facial expressions when viewing video messages from a small screen: Effects on emotion, attention, and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 10, 120-131.

10. Study 2 • The authors examined the effects of mood and the content (a priori valence and involvement) and formal (presentation modality: text vs. video) characteristics of messages presented on a small screen on emotional responses and involvement • Mood was induced by autobiographical memories varying in affective valence and arousal • A 4 (Mood Induction [joy, pleasant relaxation, fear, depression])  2 (Modality [text, video])  2 (A Priori Valence [positive, negative])  2 (A Priori Involvement [low, high]) within-subjects design was employed • Corrugator EMG activity was higher • during a priori negative messages compared to positive messages, F(1,45) = 5.45, p < . 05 • during news messages preceded by the fear and depression inductions (i.e., negative emotions) compared to those preceded by the joy and relaxation inductions, F(1,45) = 36.92, p < .001 • in the text condition compared to the video condition, F(1,45) = 27.98, p < .001 • Corrugator activity increases not only when experiencing negative emotions but also during periods of heightened effortful attention Ravaja, N., Saari, T., Kallinen, K., & Laarni, J. (in press). The role of mood in the processing of media messages from a small screen: Effects on subjective and physiological responses. Media Psychology.

11. Study 2 • Cardiac interbeat intervals (IBIs) were longer (i.e., lower HR) during a priori negative messages compared to positive messages, F(1,45) = 4.19, p < . 05 • Negative stimuli elicit greater attention compared to positive stimuli • Cardiac parasympathetic activity causes the heart to slow down when attention is paid to an external stimulus • Cardiac IBIs were shorter (i.e., higher HR) during news messages preceded by the joy and fear inductions (i.e., high-arousal emotions) compared to those preceded by the relaxation and depression inductions (i.e., low-arousal emotions), F(1,45) = 16.70, p < . 01 • Cardiac sympathetic activity causes the heart to speed up during high-arousal emotional imagery (i.e., internal stimulus; residual arousal is present during message processing) • It was possible to separate out cardiac parasympathetic and sympathetic influences when using this factorial design

12. Study 3 • The authors examined the effect of a co-located opponent on emotional responses when playing video games • A 2 (Game [Super Monkey Ball Jr., Duke Nukem Advance])  3 (Opponent [computer, friend, stranger]) within-subjects design was employed • Zygomaticus major EMG activity was higher • when playing against a human compared to playing against a computer, F(1, 28) = 67.78, p < .001 • when playing against a friend compared to playing against a stranger, F(1, 28) = 9.73, p = .004 • Orbicularis oculi EMG activity was higher • when playing against a human compared to playing against a computer, F(1, 23) = 138.49, p < .001 • when playing against a friend compared to playing against a stranger, F(1, 23) = 23.52, p < .001 • Corrugator supercilii EMG activity was lower • when playing against a human compared to playing against a computer, F(1, 25) = 78.49, p < .001 • when playing against a friend compared to playing against a stranger, F(1, 25) = 8.87, p = .006 Ravaja, N., Saari, T., Turpeinen, M., Laarni, J., Salminen, M., & Kivikangas, M. (in press). Spatial presence and emotions during video game playing: Does it matter with whom you play? Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments (Special Issue).

13. Study 3

14. Study 4 • We examined the effect of a non co-located opponent on emotional responses when playing video games • A 2 (Game [Super Monkey Ball Jr., Duke Nukem Advance])  3 (Opponent [computer, friend, stranger]) within-subjects design was employed • This study was identical with Study 3, with the exception that, in Study 4, the players were in different rooms (i.e., they were non co-located), but they were informed with whom they will be playing • Zygomaticus major EMG activity was higher • when playing against a human compared to playing against a computer, F(1, 21) = 4.49, p = .046 • when playing against a friend compared to playing against a stranger, F(1, 21) = 4.65, p = .043 • Orbicularis oculi EMG activity was higher • when playing against a human compared to playing against a computer, F(1, 22) = 24.35, p < .001 • when playing against a friend compared to playing against a stranger, F(1, 22) = 6.33, p = .020 • Corrugator supercilii EMG activity was lower • when playing against a human compared to playing against a computer, F(1, 21) = 22.77, p < .001 • when playing against a friend compared to playing against a stranger, F(1, 21) = 9.05, p = .007