Qualitative and Quantitative Causes of the Experience of Affect
This dissertation used a story-appreciation methodology, namely, a surprise discourse-structure paradigm, to investigate factors that determine the quality and the intensity of affect. Undergraduate subjects read stories which ended with information that varied in degree of surprisingness, valence potential, and resolution of comprehender's text-understanding problems. Ratings of hedonic tone (e.g., unpleasantness/pleasantness), cognitive activity (i.e., interestingness), perceived resolvedness of text-understanding problems (e.g., not resolved/resolved), and perceived peripheral arousal (i.e., tenseness/excitement) were used to examine the effects of the three independent factors on the quality and intensity of the experience of affect.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign