Behavior Research Methods Research Articles

Innovations in Qualitative Methods For Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Management

The use of qualitative methods in organizational behavior and human resource management research has attracted increasing attention. Indeed, qualitative methods provide effective tools and rich data for understanding complex, implicit, and subtle organizational phenomena and relationships. Yet, those new to qualitative research, especially those trained in a strict quantitative approach, are often puzzled by its methodological principles and specific operations in practice. This symposium brings together four presentations that highlight innovative qualitative techniques and their applications to organizational behavior and human resource (OBHR) management topics. The first presentation extends the application of repertory grid interview and aggregative analysis to the development of group constructs (e.g., work performance). The second presentation suggests the use of innovative interview structures, which assists qualitative researchers to cultivate trust and gain richer data when exploring obscurities and darkness in organizations. The third presentation tackles the conceptual confusion regarding theoretical saturation and proposes a new approach to detecting saturation. The last presentation focuses on video ethnography strategies and demonstrates a video ethnographic study on top management team dynamics and their strategic decision making. This symposium aims to offer OBHR researchers insights into up-to-date qualitative techniques with hopes of enhancing the quality of OBHR research using qualitative method. Doing Video Ethnography in Top Management Team Strategic Decision Making Research Presenter: Feng Liu; Warwick Business School Presenter: Sally Maitlis; U. of Oxford Theoretical Saturation in Qualitative Research: Insights from Quantitative Methods and Engineering Presenter: Xiaoxi Chang; Queen's School of Business, Canada Presenter: Silvia Bonaccio; Telfer School of Management, U. of Ottawa Presenter: Francois Chiocchio; Telfer School of Management, U. of Ottawa Presenter: Fanqi Kong; U. of Ottawa Aggregative Analysis of Repertory Grid Interviews to Examine Shared Understanding? Presenter: Céline Rojon; U. of Edinburgh Business School Presenter: Mark N. K. Saunders; U. of Surrey Presenter: Almuth McDowall; Birkbeck College The Eight-Hour Interview Presenter: Brett Crawford; U. of Pittsburgh

Meta-analysis of multiple outcomes: a multilevel approach.

In meta-analysis, dependent effect sizes are very common. An example is where in one or more studies the effect of an intervention is evaluated on multiple outcome variables for the same sample of participants. In this paper, we evaluate a three-level meta-analytic model to account for this kind of dependence, extending the simulation results of Van den Noortgate, López-López, Marín-Martínez, and Sánchez-Meca Behavior Research Methods, 45, 576-594 (2013) by allowing for a variation in the number of effect sizes per study, in the between-study variance, in the correlations between pairs of outcomes, and in the sample size of the studies. At the same time, we explore the performance of the approach if the outcomes used in a study can be regarded as a random sample from a population of outcomes. We conclude that although this approach is relatively simple and does not require prior estimates of the sampling covariances between effect sizes, it gives appropriate mean effect size estimates, standard error estimates, and confidence interval coverage proportions in a variety of realistic situations.

Investigating the psychological world: scientific method in the behavioral sciences

This book considers scientific method in the behavioral sciences, with particular reference to psychology. Psychologists learn about research methods and use them to conduct their research, but their training teaches them little about the nature of scientific method itself. In Investigating the Psychological World, Brian Haig fills this gap. Drawing on behavioral science methodology, the philosophy of science, and statistical theory, Haig constructs a broad theory of scientific method that has particular relevance for the behavioral sciences. He terms this account of method the abductive theory of method (ATOM) in recognition of the importance it assigns to explanatory reasoning. ATOM offers the framework for a coherent treatment of a range of quantitative and qualitative behavioral research methods, giving equal treatment to data-analytic methods and methods of theory construction. Haig draws on the new experimentalism in the philosophy of science to reconstruct the process of phenomena detection as it applies to psychology; he considers the logic and purpose of exploratory factor analysis; he discusses analogical modeling as a means of theory development; and he recommends the use of inference to the best explanation for evaluating theories in psychology. Finally, he outlines the nature of research problems, discusses the nature of the abductive method, and describes applications of the method to grounded theory method and clinical reasoning. The book will be of interest not only to philosophers of science but also to psychological researchers who want to deepen their conceptual understanding of research methods and methodological concerns.

Reading in Spanish and Italian: Effects of Age of Acquisition in Transparent Orthographies?

Despite the similar transparency of their orthographies, reading in Italian has been found to be affected by frequency but not age of acquisition (AoA) [Barca, L., Burani, C., & Arduino, L. S. (2002). Word naming times and psycholinguistic norms for Italian nouns. Behaviour Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 34, 424-434] while reading in Spanish is affected by AoA but not frequency [Cuetos, F., & Barbón, A. (2006). Word naming in Spanish. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 18, 415-436]. We examined this cross-linguistic difference, firstly, through a reanalysis of the Italian and Spanish reading latencies. After eliminating several between-experiment differences, we replicated the AoA effect in Spanish but not in Italian and the frequency effect in Italian but not in Spanish. The cross-linguistic comparison could not equate stimulus imageability; therefore, secondly, we compared the Italian reading latencies with new Spanish reading latencies for imageability-matched words. We found frequency effects but neither an AoA effect nor a language by AoA interaction. We argue that the previously reported cross-linguistic difference in the AoA effect resulted from a between-study difference in stimulus imageability. More imageable words induced more semantic involvement in reading, yielding an AoA effect in Spanish.

Sensory experience ratings (SERs) for 1,659 French words: Relationships with other psycholinguistic variables and visual word recognition.

We collected sensory experience ratings (SERs) for 1,659 French words in adults. Sensory experience for words is a recently introduced variable that corresponds to the degree to which words elicit sensory and perceptual experiences (Juhasz & Yap Behavior Research Methods, 45, 160-168, 2013; Juhasz, Yap, Dicke, Taylor, & Gullick Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 1683-1691, 2011). The relationships of the sensory experience norms with other psycholinguistic variables (e.g., imageability and age of acquisition) were analyzed. We also investigated the degree to which SER predicted performance in visual word recognition tasks (lexical decision, word naming, and progressive demasking). The analyses indicated that SER reliably predicted response times in lexical decision, but not in word naming or progressive demasking. The findings are discussed in relation to the status of SER, the role of semantic code activation in visual word recognition, and the embodied view of cognition.

Studying the effectiveness of Group Therapy Based Life Enrichment and Enhancement Program on improvement of Therapeutic Indicates of Addiction in Dependent Men to Opiate

Abstract Background and aim: Despite significant advances in the field of detoxification and maintenance treatment, findings imply high rates of treatment failure and increase in the relapse even with the early success in detoxification. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of group therapy based life enrichment and enhancement program on improving of therapeutic indices of addiction in dependent men to opium. Material and methods: A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was used.The sample of the study consisted of 24 male substance abusers who were receiving methadone treatment in Iran Pak clinic , in Mashhad city. They were selected by convince method and randomly assigned in two experimental and control groups. Participants of experimental group attended in life enrichment and enhancement program for 5 sessions. Data were collected by 3 instruments : Personal Concerns Inventory, The Satisfaction with Life Scale and Craving and Temptation Scale which were completed by both groups before and after intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS-18. Finding: Findings showed that the life enrichment and enhancement program significantly improved adaptive motivational structure score (P<0.01) and life satisfaction score (p<0.05) in intervention group. The LEEP also significantly decreased the craving and temptation scores in intervention group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Group therapy based Life enrichment and enhancement program can be an effective method in promotion of motivational structure, satisfaction with life and also reduction of temptation of drug abuse in men substance abusers who are under methadone treatment. Key words: Life Enrichment and Enhancement Program, Group therapy, Addiction, Opiate, The Satisfaction with Life, Temptation. REFERENCES Abdolhoseini, F (2009) [Comparative Study of Life Enhancement and Advancement Programme (LEAP) and REBT on Improving the Therapeutic Indices of Female Drug Abusers] (Dissertation). Mashhad: Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. (Persian) Bahrami E (2011) [Addiction and Prevention Process]. Tehran: The Organization for Researching and Composing University Textbooks in the Humanities (Samt). (Persian) Bayani. A A, Mohammad Koocheky A, Goodarzi H (2007) [The reliability and validity of the satisfaction with life scale]. Journal of Iranian Psychologists . 3(11) 259-265. (Persian) Cox W M and Klinger E (1988) A motivational model of alcohol use. Journal of Abnormal Psychology . 97(2) 168-80. Cox W M and Klinger E (2002) Motivational structure: Relationships with substance use and processes of change. Addictive Behaviors . 27(6) 925-940. Diener E, et al (1985) The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment . 49 (1)71-75. Fadardi J S (2003) Motivational and Cognitive Determinants of Attentional Bias for Alcohol-Related Stimuli: Implications for a New Attentional-training . (Dissertation). Bangor: University of Wales. Fadardi J S and Cox W M (2008) Alcohol-attentional bias and motivational structure as independent predictors of social drinkers alcohol consumption. Draug and Alcohol Dependence . 97(3) 247-256. Fadardi J S, Cox W M and Klinger E (2006) Life Enrichment and Advancement Program (Leap): A self- Help Manual for Reducing Your Need to Drink . University of wales, Bangor,Uk. 85 150-155. Fadardi J S, Ziaee S S and Barerfan Z (2008). [The Persian Post-Detoxification Craving and Temptation Scale]. Mashhad:Unpublished Manual. Faul F, et al., (2007) G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social behavioral and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods . 39 (2)175-191. Fleming M F, Barry K L (1998). Addictive Disorders . Mosby Year Book. Goodarzi N, et al (2008) [The effectiveness of group contracting and behavioural activation therapy on opioid substance use disorders]. Contemporary Psychology 3(1) 3-13. (Persian) Mohammadi M, Dahganpoor M (2004) [Psychopathology of substance abuse]. National Institute of Drug Studies: Ayene book. (Persian) Mozaffari S H (2003) [Personality correlates of subjective happiness among students of Shiraz University based on The five factor model]. (Dissertation). Shiraz: Shiraz University. (Persian) Raadi M, Rezaie R (2001) [prevention of addiction special for families, Preventive cultural Administration of kurdestan rehabilitation org]. (Persian) Rahimi M M K, Mohammad K, Razaghi E M (2002) [The 30- year- old process of drug usage in Iran]. Hakim Research Journal . 5 (3) 171-182. (Persian) Shamloo Z S and Cox W M (2009) The relationship between motivational structure, sense of control, intrinsic motivation and university students’ alcohol consumption. ive Behaviorss. 35(2) 140-146. Ziaee S S (2009) [Effect of attention control training on the reduction of attentional bias in drug abusers]. (Dissertation). Mashhad: Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. (Persian)

A method for simultaneously counterbalancing condition order and assignment of stimulus materials to conditions.

Counterbalanced designs are frequently used in the behavioral sciences. Studies often counterbalance either the order in which conditions are presented in the experiment or the assignment of stimulus materials to conditions. Occasionally, researchers need to simultaneously counterbalance both condition order and stimulus assignment to conditions. Lewis (1989; Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 25:414-415, 1993) presented a method for constructing Latin squares that fulfill these requirements. The resulting Latin squares counterbalance immediate sequential effects, but not remote sequential effects. Here, we present a new method for generating Latin squares that simultaneously counterbalance both immediate and remote sequential effects and assignment of stimuli to conditions. An Appendix is provided to facilitate implementation of these Latin square designs.

Ostracism Online: A social media ostracism paradigm.

We describe Ostracism Online, a novel, social media-based ostracism paradigm designed to (1) keep social interaction experimentally controlled, (2) provide researchers with the flexibility to manipulate the properties of the social situation to fit their research purposes, (3) be suitable for online data collection, (4) be convenient for studying subsequent within-group behavior, and (5) be ecologically valid. After collecting data online, we compared the Ostracism Online paradigm with the Cyberball paradigm (Williams & Jarvis Behavior Research Methods, 38, 174-180, 2006) on need-threat and mood questionnaire scores (van Beest & Williams Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 91, 918-928, 2006). We also examined whether ostracized targets of either paradigm would be more likely to conform to their group members than if they had been included. Using a Bayesian analysis of variance to examine the individual effects of the different paradigms and to compare these effects across paradigms, we found analogous effects on need-threat and mood. Perhaps because we examined conformity to the ostracizers (rather than neutral sources), neither paradigm showed effects of ostracism on conformity. We conclude that Ostracism Online is a cost-effective, easy to use, and ecologically valid research tool for studying the psychological and behavioral effects of ostracism.

Comment on Hoffman and Rovine (2007): SPSS MIXED can estimate models with heterogeneous variances.

Hoffman and Rovine (Behavior Research Methods, 39:101-117, 2007) have provided a very nice overview of how multilevel models can be useful to experimental psychologists. They included two illustrative examples and provided both SAS and SPSS commands for estimating the models they reported. However, upon examining the SPSS syntax for the models reported in their Table 3, we found no syntax for models 2B and 3B, both of which have heterogeneous error variances. Instead, there is syntax that estimates similar models with homogeneous error variances and a comment stating that SPSS does not allow heterogeneous errors. But that is not correct. We provide SPSS MIXED commands to estimate models 2B and 3B with heterogeneous error variances and obtain results nearly identical to those reported by Hoffman and Rovine in their Table 3. Therefore, contrary to the comment in Hoffman and Rovine's syntax file, SPSS MIXED can estimate models with heterogeneous error variances.

A rodent version of the Iowa Gambling Task: 7 years of progress

In the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) subjects need to find a way to earn money in a context of variable wins and losses, conflicting short-term and long-term pay-off, and uncertainty of outcomes. In 2006, we published the first rodent version of the IGT (r-IGT; Behavior Research Methods 38, 470–478). Here, we discuss emerging ideas on the involvement of different prefrontal-striatal networks in task-progression in the r-IGT, as revealed by our studies thus far. The emotional system, encompassing, among others, the orbitofrontal cortex, infralimbic cortex and nucleus accumbens (shell and core area), may be involved in assessing and anticipating the value of different options in the early stages of the task, i.e., as animals explore and learn task contingencies. The cognitive control system, encompassing, among others, the prelimbic cortex and dorsomedial striatum, may be involved in instrumental goal-directed behavior in later stages of the task, i.e., as behavior toward long-term options is strengthened (reinforced) and behavior toward long-term poor options is weakened (punished). In addition, we suggest two directions for future research: (1) the role of the internal state of the subject in decision-making, and (2) studying differences in task-related costs. Overall, our studies have contributed to understanding the interaction between the emotional system and cognitive control system as crucial to navigating human and non-human animals alike through a world of variable wins and losses, conflicting short-term and long-term pay-offs, and uncertainty of outcomes.

Error bars in within-subject designs: a comment on Baguley (2012)

The problem of calculating error bars in within-subject designs has proven to be a difficult problem and has received much attention in recent years. Baguley (Behavior Research Methods, 44, 158-175, 2012) recommended what he called the Cousineau-Morey method. This method requires two steps: first, centering the data set in a certain way to remove between-subject differences and, second, integrating a correction factor to debias the standard errors obtained from the normalized data set. However, within some statistical packages, it can be difficult to integrate this correction factor. Baguley (2012) proposed a solution that works well in most statistical packages in which the alpha level is altered to incorporate the correction factor. However, with this solution, it is possible to plot confidence intervals, but not standard errors. Here, we propose a second solution that can return confidence intervals or standard error bars in a mean plot.

ANGST: Affective norms for German sentiment terms, derived from the affective norms for English words

We present the German adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW; Bradley & Lang in Technical Report No. C-1. Gainsville: University of Florida, Center for Research in Psychophysiology). A total of 1,003 Words-German translations of the ANEW material-were rated on a total of six dimensions: The classic ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance (as in the ANEW corpus) were extended with additional arousal ratings using a slightly different scale (see BAWL: Võ et al. in Behavior Research Methods 41: 531-538, 2009; Võ, Jacobs, & Conrad in Behavior Research Methods 38: 606-609, 2006), along with ratings of imageability and potency. Measures of several objective psycholinguistic variables (different types of word frequency counts, grammatical class, number of letters, number of syllables, and number of orthographic neighbors) for the words were also added, so as to further facilitate the use of this new database in psycholinguistic research. These norms can be downloaded as supplemental materials with this article.

An appropriate use of iMap produces correct statistical results: a reply to McManus (2013) "iMAP and iMAP2 produce erroneous statistical maps of eye-movement differences".

McManus (2013, Perception, 42, 1075-1084) contends the validity of the statistical approach adopted in previous versions of iMap (namely, iMap and iMap2; Caldara & Miellet, 2011, Behavior Research Methods, 43, 864-878), casts doubts on earlier results obtained with the toolbox, and offers an altered version of the code. Here we dispute these claims and argue that while some of the arguments put forward are valid, McManus's conclusions are misleading, since they are based on a partial use of the toolbox. Moreover, we compared iMap with the alternative code offered by McManus and objectively demonstrate that McManus's approach is underpowered and flawed. iMap offers an appropriate and effective alternative to the commonly used regions of interest approach for statistical analyses of eye-movement data.

Using the philosophy of science to better understand research methods1

Abstract This article suggests that contemporary philosophy of science can significantly increase our understanding of behavioral research methods. In particular, it illustrates this contention by showing how selected methodological ideas in the philosophy of science can deepen our understanding of the widely used method of exploratory factor analysis.

Are all ostracism experiences equal? A comparison of the autobiographical recall, Cyberball, and O-Cam paradigms

In the present study, we aimed to compare the primary-need depletion elicited by three common ostracism paradigms: autobiographical recall (e.g., Zhong & Leonardelli in Psychological Science 19:838-842, 2008), Cyberball (Williams, Cheung, & Choi in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 79:748-762, 2000), and O-Cam (Goodacre & Zadro in Behavior Research Methods 42:768-774, 2010). A total of 152 participants (52 males) were randomly allocated to one of the three paradigms, and their subsequent primary needs were measured (belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningful existence). O-Cam was found to induce greater total primary-need depletion than did Cyberball and recall, which did not differ significantly from each other. Moreover, when examining the pattern of individual need depletion elicited by each paradigm, O-Cam was found to induce significantly greater depletion of belonging, control, and meaningful existence than did the recall paradigm, and significantly greater depletion of control and self-esteem than did Cyberball. No other comparisons were found to be significant, including the comparisons between the recall and Cyberball paradigms for each individual primary need. Collectively, the findings will assist ostracism researchers in making informed choices regarding (a) which paradigm is appropriate to implement with respect to their research aims, and (b) whether the interchangeable use of paradigms within a program of research is appropriate practice.

The adaptation of the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW) for Italian

We developed affective norms for 1,121 Italian words in order to provide researchers with a highly controlled tool for the study of verbal processing. This database was developed from translations of the 1,034 English words present in the Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW; Bradley & Lang, 1999) and from words taken from Italian semantic norms (Montefinese, Ambrosini, Fairfield, & Mammarella, Behavior Research Methods, 45, 440-461, 2013). Participants evaluated valence, arousal, and dominance using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) in a Web survey procedure. Participants also provided evaluations of three subjective psycholinguistic indexes (familiarity, imageability, and concreteness), and five objective psycholinguistic indexes (e.g., word frequency) were also included in the resulting database in order to further characterize the Italian words. We obtained a typical quadratic relation between valence and arousal, in line with previous findings. We also tested the reliability of the present ANEW adaptation for Italian by comparing it to previous affective databases and performing split-half correlations for each variable. We found high split-half correlations within our sample and high correlations between our ratings and those of previous studies, confirming the validity of the adaptation of ANEW for Italian. This database of affective norms provides a tool for future research about the effects of emotion on human cognition.

Introduction to the SCiP special issue

Several of the articles in this issue are based on presentations at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP). The conference was held in Minneapolis, MN on November 15, 2012 and included talks, posters, and symposia on topics as diverse as cognitive and neural processes, computational linguistics, online learning, eyetracking tools, and data mining. The keynote address was given by Brian MacWhinney on “Using the Web to Study Real-Life Language Learning: Measures, Experiments, Models, Tutors, and Tours.” Ping Li also hosted a presidential symposium, “Innovative Technologies and the Science of Learning: Language Acquisition by Children and Adults.” A copy of the conference program can be found at http://www.scip.co/scip-2012/. Alexandra Paxton from the University of California, Merced received the John Castellan Student Paper award for the presentation “Linguistic Alignment in Debate.” All of the SCiP articles in this special issue were treated to the same reviewing and publication standards as other articles in Behavior Research Methods. My thanks to the authors, reviewers, and consulting editors for quickly moving the papers through the review process. The 43rd Annual Meeting of SCiP will be in Toronto, Canada on November 14, 2013. Additional information can be found at http://www.scip.co/scip-2013/. The Society for Computers in Psychology is a nonprofit organization of researchers interested in applications of computers in psychology. Its primary purpose is to increase and share knowledge about the use of computers in psychological research. Membership is open to any person who has an academic degree and who is active in scientific applications of computers to psychological research. Membership information can be found at the SCiPWeb site at http://www.scip.co/. The officers of SCiP 2012 included president, Ping Li, Pennsylvania State University; president elect, Michael Jones of Indiana University; past president, Joseph Magliano of Northern Illinois University; and secretarytreasurer, Rick Dale of the University of California, Merced. The steering committee included Patrick Conley of the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point; Rick Dale of the University of California, Merced; Randy Jamieson of the University of Manitoba, Chris Koch of George Fox University, Kay Livesay of Linfield College; Otto MacLin of the University of Northern Iowa; Danielle McNamara of Arizona State University; Douglas Mewhort of Queens University; Ulf-Dietrich Reips of University of Deusto; Yana Weinstein of Washington University, St. Louis; and Xiaowei Zhao of Emmanuel College.

Predicting naming latencies for action pictures: Dutch norms

The present study provides Dutch norms for age of acquisition, familiarity, imageability, image agreement, visual complexity, word frequency, and word length (in syllables) for 124 line drawings of actions. Ratings were obtained from 117 Dutch participants. Word frequency was determined on the basis of the SUBTLEX-NL corpus (Keuleers, Brysbaert, & New, Behavior Research Methods, 42, 643-650, 2010). For 104 of the pictures, naming latencies and name agreement were determined in a separate naming experiment with 74 native speakers of Dutch. The Dutch norms closely corresponded to the norms for British English. Multiple regression analysis showed that age of acquisition, imageability, image agreement, visual complexity, and name agreement were significant predictors of naming latencies, whereas word frequency and word length were not. Combined with the results of a principal-component analysis, these findings suggest that variables influencing the processes of conceptual preparation and lexical selection affect latencies more strongly than do variables influencing word-form encoding.

ESCOLEX: A grade-level lexical database from European Portuguese elementary to middle school textbooks

In this article, we introduce ESCOLEX, the first European Portuguese children's lexical database with grade-level-adjusted word frequency statistics. Computed from a 3.2-million-word corpus, ESCOLEX provides 48,381 word forms extracted from 171 elementary and middle school textbooks for 6- to 11-year-old children attending the first six grades in the Portuguese educational system. Like other children's grade-level databases (e.g., Carroll, Davies, & Richman, 1971; Corral, Ferrero, & Goikoetxea, Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1009-1017, 2009; Lété, Sprenger-Charolles, & Colé, Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 36, 156-166, 2004; Zeno, Ivens, Millard, Duvvuri, 1995), ESCOLEX provides four frequency indices for each grade: overall word frequency (F), index of dispersion across the selected textbooks (D), estimated frequency per million words (U), and standard frequency index (SFI). It also provides a new measure, contextual diversity (CD). In addition, the number of letters in the word and its part(s) of speech, number of syllables, syllable structure, and adult frequencies taken from P-PAL (a European Portuguese corpus-based lexical database; Soares, Comesaña, Iriarte, Almeida, Simões, Costa, …, Machado, 2010; Soares, Iriarte, Almeida, Simões, Costa, França, …, Comesaña, in press) are provided. ESCOLEX will be a useful tool both for researchers interested in language processing and development and for professionals in need of verbal materials adjusted to children's developmental stages. ESCOLEX can be downloaded along with this article or from http://p-pal.di.uminho.pt/about/databases .

Affective auditory stimuli: Adaptation of the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS-2) for European Portuguese

In this study, we present the normative values of the adaptation of the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS-2; Bradley & Lang, 2007a) for European Portuguese (EP). The IADS-2 is a standardized database of 167 naturally occurring sounds that is widely used in the study of emotions. The sounds were rated by 300 college students who were native speakers of EP, in the three affective dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance, by using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The aims of this adaptation were threefold: (1) to provide researchers with standardized and normatively rated affective sounds to be used with an EP population; (2) to investigate sex and cultural differences in the ratings of affective dimensions of auditory stimuli between EP and the American (Bradley & Lang, 2007a) and Spanish (Fernández-Abascal et al., Psicothema 20:104-113 2008; Redondo, Fraga, Padrón, & Piñeiro, Behavior Research Methods 40:784-790 2008) standardizations; and (3) to promote research on auditory affective processing in Portugal. Our results indicated that the IADS-2 is a valid and useful database of digitized sounds for the study of emotions in a Portuguese context, allowing for comparisons of its results with those of other international studies that have used the same database for stimulus selection. The normative values of the EP adaptation of the IADS-2 database can be downloaded along with the online version of this article.