The emotion slider: A self-report device for the continuous measurement of emotion

The emotion slider is a device developed to collect self-reports of the valence of users´ experiences with interactive systems based on recent theories on the embodiment of emotion and basic approach/avoidance behavioral tendencies. To test it, participants (N = 51) watched 10 positive and 10 negative slides from the International affective picture system while using the emotion slider in two different ways: pushing the handle to report positive feelings and pulling it for negative feelings in one condition (incongruent condition) and pushing the handle to report negative feelings and pulling it for positive feelings in the other (congruent condition). Response times were significantly different between the two usage conditions but the direction of this difference did not conform to the prediction. Shorter response time was associated with fewer errors. The conclusion describes some implications for human-computer interaction research.