The Influence of Human-Computer Sagittal Interaction in Peripersonal Space on Affective Valence Appraisals

Abstract

This dissertation argues, from an embodied perspective, that people’s emotional connection with space is based on their physical structure and their experience of interacting with the environment. Accordingly, the space surrounding the dominant hand and non-dominant hand is associated with different valence appraisals of emotional content (i.e., right hand toward the right space-positive; left hand toward the left space-positive). Rizzolatti regards that the space surrounding us is divided into two parts with the arm length, the space within is called peripersonal space and distant peripersonal space on the contrary. Interestingly, the experiments based on Embodied Cognitive have not been examined with regard to the peripersonal and distant-peripersonal space. Therefore, the study has considered this question and aims to explore the influence of the user’s sagittal interaction in peripersonal space (distal-to-proximal or proximal-to-distal touchscreen’ locations) on affective valence appraisals.