Embodied cognition and emotion in multisensory media

Other conference contribution, 2007

Emotions underlie most events in our everyday life perception. They prepare ourselves for an optimum response to these events, either showing attraction or rejection to them. Likewise, media has the power to evoke in us similar affective processes as the ones created by real situations. This research investigates the role of emotions in media experiences, particularly, from a perspective of embodiment. The concepts of embodied cognition and embodied emotion emphasize the idea that the body is strongly connected to the information processing in the brain. In line with this theory, the present research addresses human responses to stimuli associated with a person's own body (selfrepresentation sounds, e.g. heartbeat) or stimuli that occurred in a peripersonal space. The presented studies focus on auditory-induced emotions even though contributions of other sensory modalities (visual, vibrotactile) to the affective media experience are also considered. Human affective responses are accessed from different perspectives and combining different methodologies (self-report, behavioural and physiological measures). In addition, the influence of personality traits on the media experience is being investigated. Results suggest that stimuli resulting in the increase of body awareness might increase emotional experience and vice versa