The emotional movie database (EMDB): a self-report and psychophysiological study

Film clips are an important tool for evoking
emotional responses in the laboratory. When compared
with other emotionally potent visual stimuli (e.g., pictures),
film clips seem to be more effective in eliciting emotions
for longer periods of time at both the subjective and
physiological levels. The main objective of the present
study was to develop a new database of affective film clips
without auditory content, based on a dimensional approach
to emotional stimuli (valence, arousal and dominance). The
study had three different phases: (1) the pre-selection and
editing of 52 film clips (2) the self-report rating of these
film clips by a sample of 113 participants and (3) psychophysiological
assessment [skin conductance level
(SCL) and the heart rate (HR)] on 32 volunteers. Film clips
from different categories were selected to elicit emotional
states from different quadrants of affective space. The
results also showed that sustained exposure to the affective
film clips resulted in a pattern of a SCL increase and HR
deceleration in high arousal conditions (i.e., horror and
erotic conditions). The resulting emotional movie database
can reliably be used in research requiring the presentation
of non-auditory film clips with different ratings of valence,
arousal and dominance.
Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology with individual grants
(SFRH/BD/41484/2007 and SFRH/BD/64355/2009)