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. 2001
Typical measuring devices
Tell us how much you enjoyed your visit today:
1)



2)



3) Terrible
0
Mediocre
Okay
1
2
Good
3
Great!
4
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
“emotion space”)



Mehrabian and Russell (1974)
Marketing tool
PANAS = Positive And Negative Affect Schedule



(3-D
Watson et al. 1988
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 –

Defined by the concept that:

a semantic differential technique.
“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
Pleasure
Arousal
Dominance
happy – unhappy
stimulated – relaxed
controlling – controlled
pleased – annoyed
excited – calm
influential – influenced
satisfied – unsatisfied
frenzied – 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
1
2
very slightly
or not at all
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
a little
interested
distressed
excited
upset
strong
guilty
scared
hostile
enthusiastic
proud
3
4
moderately
quite a bit
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
irritable
alert
ashamed
inspired
nervous
determined
attentive
jittery
active
afraid
5
extremely
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
___:___:__:___:___:___:___
Stale
___:___:___:___:___:__:___
Dull
___:___:___:___:__:___:___
Relevant
___:__:___:___:___:___:___
Interesting __:___:___:___:___:___:___
Stodgy
___:___:___:___:___:__:___
Stimulating ___:__:___:___:___:___:___
Inviting
___:___:__:___:___:___:___
Simple
___:___:___:___:__:___:___
Routine
___:___:___:___:__:___:___
Passive
Fresh
Vibrant
Pointless
Boring
Inspiring
Tedious
Off-putting
Complex
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.”