Our chapter Affect Measurement: Approaches, Technologies, and Data Analysis is published.

Abstract

Affect is inextricably related to human cognitive processes and ex- presses a great deal about human necessities (Picard, 1997); affect signals what matters to us and what we care about. Furthermore, affect impacts our rational decision-making and action selection (Picard, 2010). Provid- ing computers with the capability to recognize, understand, and respond to human affective states would narrow the communication gap between the highly emotional human and the emotionally detached computer, en- hancing their interactions. Computer applications in learning, health care, and entertainment stand to bene t from such capabilities. Affect is a conceptual quantity with fuzzy boundaries and with sub- stantial individual difference variations in expression and experience (Picard, 1997). This makes measuring affect a challenging task. This chap- ter does not intend to present a comprehensive survey of the methods used to measure affect but instead provides a roadmap through a selection of the principal approaches and technologies. Section “Affect, Emotions, and Measurement” introduces the concepts and background behind affect measurement. Section “Gathering Data: Approaches and Technologies” presents approaches and technologies, explaining the type of data gath- ered from each, its characteristics, and its pros and cons. Section “Data Handling: Sampling, Filtering, and Integration” describes the stages of data handling, which include data sampling, data ltering, and data inte- gration from a variety of sources. Section “Data Analysis” describes tools and techniques for data analysis that correlate affect measurements with stimuli, and presents examples of the application of these tools in the anal- ysis of data samples collected in experimental studies.

Reference

Gonzalez-Sanchez, J., Baydogan, M., Chavez-Echeagaray, M.E., Atkinson, R., & Burleson, W. (2016). Affect Measurement: A Roadmap Through Approaches, Technologies, and Data Analysis. In J. Myounghoon (Ed), Affective Sciences in Human Factors and Human-Computer Interaction. Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-801851-4.00011-2