Presenting new stimuli to study emotion: Development and validation of the Objects-on-Hands Picture Database

A long-standing goal shared by researchers has been to design optimal experimental procedures, including the selection of appropriate stimuli. Pictures are commonly used in different research fields. However, until recently, researchers have relied mostly on line-drawings, which can have poor ecological validity. We developed a set of high quality standardized photographs of objects from six different categories, recorded under two camera viewpoints, and five presentation conditions (on its own, held by clean hands, and by hands covered with different substances: sauce, chocolate and mud). These various staging conditions can be used to induce different emotional states while maintaining the object of interest constant. We first report normative data on the objects’ name agreement and familiarity collected from North American and Portuguese participants. Results showed high name agreement and familiarity in both samples. Next, arousal, disgust and valence ratings were collected for the stimuli under either an emotional-activating or a neutral context. Subjective ratings varied according to the staging condition and the context, confirming that the same items can effectively be used in different emotional conditions. This database allows researchers to select more ecologically-valid stimuli according to their research purposes while considering several variables of interest and avoiding item-selection problems commonly present when comparing responses to neutral and emotional items.