Quantifying Affect Reviewing the literature on measuring and quantifying affect outside of the museum community

What is Affect?  Affect: “ Feelings, attitudes, emotions. ”  Affect: “ Feelings, attitudes, values, beliefs. ” The component of an experience that involves how a person feels about something or how they feel while engaged in an activity

Why Study Affect? “ There is an interplay between emotions and learning, but this interaction is far more complex than previous learning theories have articulated… Csikszentmihalyi (1990) asserts that a student ’ s affective (emotional) state impacts learning and…appropriate intervention based upon that affective state [can] facilitate learning. ” –Kort et al “ There is an interplay between emotions and learning, but this interaction is far more complex than previous learning theories have articulated… Csikszentmihalyi (1990) asserts that a student ’ s affective (emotional) state impacts learning and…appropriate intervention based upon that affective state [can] facilitate learning. ” –Kort et al. 2001

Typical measuring devices Tell us how much you enjoyed your visit today: 1)   2)    3) Terrible Mediocre Okay Good Great!

Typical Measuring Devices Problems? 1.That ’ s only one small aspect of affect. What do those symbols really tell you about the visit experience? 2.How can the answers to these questions enhance the affective impact of your institution?

Solutions? Look Elsewhere!  Marketing  Anthropology  Positive psychology  Computing  Formal Education  Leisure Studies

Three Promising Models  PAD = Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance (3-D “ emotion space ” )  Mehrabian and Russell (1974)  Marketing tool  PANAS = Positive And Negative Affect Schedule  Watson et al  Psychology tool  Semantic Differential = Pairs of polar opposite adjectives used to define attitudes, feelings, etc.  Osgood et al (1957, 1969)  Anthropology tool

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL  PAD – a semantic differential technique.  Defined by the concept that:  “ Emotional reactions to one ’ s environment can be characterized by the three response dimensions of pleasure, arousal, and dominance. ”

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL  PAD – a semantic differential technique.  Defined by the concept that: “ Emotional reactions to one ’ s environment can be characterized by the three response dimensions of pleasure, arousal, and dominance. ”  Pairs of polar adjectives are rated on a -4 to +4 point scale regarding a situation.

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL PleasureArousalDominance happy – unhappystimulated – relaxed controlling – controlled pleased – annoyedexcited – calm influential – influenced satisfied – unsatisfiedfrenzied – sluggish in control – cared for contented – melancholic jittery – dull important – awed hopeful – despairing wide awake – sleepy dominant – submissive relaxed – bored aroused – unaroused autonomous – guided Instructions: “ Each pair of words describes a feeling dimension. Some of the pairs might seem unusual, but you may generally feel more one way than the other. So, for each pair, put a check mark, (Ex.: ___:_X_:___) to show how you feel about _____________. Please take your time so as to arrive at a real characteristic description of your feelings.

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL Analysis of PAD data:

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL PANAS   Published in 1988 by Watson et al Positive Affect (PA) = “the extent to which a person feels enthusiastic, active and alert. High PA is a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low PA is characterized by sadness and lethargy.” Negative Affect (NA) = “a general dimension of subjective distress and unpleasurable engagement that subsumes a variety of aversive mood states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness, with low NA being a state of calmness and serenity.”

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL PANAS Watson et al who assert that, “[Positive and negative affect] consistently emerge in studies of affective structure, both in the United States and in a number of Other cultures.” and that “positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions.” Also, Positive and Negative Affect are orthogonal dimensions rather than negatively correlated.

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL PANAS   Introduced to VSA in 2005 by Dr. Jane Marie Clipman of Penn State   Assign a number per word expressing the extent to which they felt that way during their visit very slightly a little moderately quite a bit extremely or not at all _____ interested_____ irritable _____ distressed_____ alert _____ excited_____ ashamed _____ upset_____ inspired _____ strong_____ nervous _____ guilty_____ determined _____ scared_____ attentive _____ hostile_____ jittery _____ enthusiastic_____ active _____ proud_____ afraid

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL Originated in the 1940s-50s with anthropological studies Today it is “ generally regarded as a good tool for measuring affect … Its score represents the respondent ’ s general impression about the attitude object. Because of this, it is useful in situations where people are likely to have strong emotional reactions to a topic but not well thought out opinions. ” As with the PAD, three “ dimensions ” of response account for most of the covariation in ratings. Evaluation, Potency and Activity (EPA) have been verified and replicated in dozens of of studies.

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL Semantic Differential Polar-opposite adjective pairs. Visitors place a mark between the words indicating the extent to which they feel one way relative to the other. E.g. Active ___:___:_  _:___:___:___:___ Passive Stale ___:___:___:___:___:_  _:___ Fresh Dull ___:___:___:___:_  _:___:___ Vibrant Relevant ___:_  _:___:___:___:___:___ Pointless Interesting _  _:___:___:___:___:___:___ Boring Stodgy ___:___:___:___:___:_  _:___ Inspiring Stimulating ___:_  _:___:___:___:___:___ Tedious Inviting ___:___:_  _:___:___:___:___ Off-putting Simple ___:___:___:___:_  _:___:___ Complex Routine ___:___:___:___:_  _:___:___ Novel

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL Benefits of using SD:   Simple scale   Economical way of gathering affective data.   Can be used with adults or children, and cross cultural   Multivariate approach   Permits comparison of affective reactions to widely disparate things   Generalizable. Has been used for decades to measure attitude change and formation, attitudes toward jobs, occupations, organizations, minorities etc.   Using pure scales (good bad—evaluation, powerful powerless—potency, fast slow—activity) produces reliable measures of a person’s overall response to something.

PAD, PANAS, and the SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL Analysis:   A concept is rated on several pure scales associated with a single dimension   Results are averaged to provide a single factor score for each dimension.   You ’ re left with the concept ’ s affective “ profile. ”