Abstract:

Positive and negative emotion can activate the autonomic nervous system with a series of physiological changes. Results from basic research found that several autonomic systems were involved, including the cardiovascular system (e.g., heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and heart rate variability (HRV)), electrodermal response (e.g., skin conductance level (SCL)), respiratory system (e.g., respiratory resistance (Ros), minute ventilation (Vm)) and other system (e.g., pupil diameter and electrogastrogram (EGG)). The patterns of autonomic nervous response associated with certain kind of emotions have many practical applications, such as measurement of emotional state in user experience, development of human- computer affective interaction system based on physiological signals, and detection of consumers’ attitudes and bias. Regarding the divergences in existing studies, the following three reasons were discussed: the heterogeneity of participants, the inconsistency and reliability of various emotion induction methods, the property diversification of experimental stimuli. Furthermore, some suggestions for future research were proposed.

Key words: Positive and negative emotion, autonomic nervous response, user experience, human-computer affective interaction, consumer attitudes