Coding valence in touchscreen interactions: Hand dominance and lateral movement influence valence appraisals of emotional pictures

The Body-Specificity Hypothesis postulates that the space surrounding the dominant hand is perceived as positive due to the motor fluency of this hand, whereas the space surrounding the non-dominant hand is perceived as negative. Experimental studies based on this theoretical framework also revealed associations between affective valence and hand dominance (i.e., dominant hand—positive; non-dominant hand—negative), or lateral movements of the hands (i.e., right hand toward the right space—positive; left hand toward the left space—positive). Interestingly, these associations have not been examined with regard to how lateral actions of the hands may influence affective experiences as, for example, in valence appraisals of affective objects that have been manipulated. The study presented here has considered this question in light of the emerging interest of embodied cognition approaches to interactive technologies, particularly in affective experiences with touchscreen interfaces. Accordingly, right-handed participants evaluated the valence of positive and negative emotional pictures after interacting with them either with the dominant right or with the non-dominant left hand. Specifically, they moved the pictures either from left to right or from right to left sides of a touchscreen monitor. The results indicated that a valence matching between the hand used for the interactions, the picture’s valence category, and the movement’s starting side reinforced the valence appraisals of the pictures (i.e., positive/negative pictures were more positively/negatively evaluated). The findings are discussed against the background of the Theory of Event Coding, which accounts for both the affective properties of the stimuli and the affective connotation of the related action.

身体特异性假说（Body-Specificity Hypothesis）提出，由于优势手具备更优的运动流畅性，该手周边的空间会被感知为具有积极效价，而非优势手周边的空间则会被感知为具有消极效价。基于该理论框架开展的实验研究也揭示了情感效价与利手之间的关联，即：优势手对应积极效价，非优势手对应消极效价；或与手部的侧向运动相关，即：右手朝向右侧空间时对应积极效价，左手朝向左侧空间时亦对应积极效价。值得注意的是，目前尚未有研究针对手部侧向动作如何影响情感体验展开探讨，例如在经操控的情感客体的效价评估场景中。本研究结合具身认知方法在交互技术领域日益增长的研究兴趣，尤其是触屏界面下的情感体验研究方向，对这一问题进行了探讨。据此，本研究招募右利手被试，让其分别使用优势右手与非优势左手与正负性情绪图片进行交互，随后对这些图片的效价进行评估。具体操作中，被试需在触屏显示器上将图片从左侧移至右侧，或从右侧移至左侧。结果显示，当交互所用手部、图片效价类别与运动起始侧三者的效价匹配时，会强化被试对图片的效价评估，即：正性图片会被评定为更积极，负性图片会被评定为更消极。本研究结合事件编码理论（Theory of Event Coding）对研究结果进行讨论，该理论可同时解释刺激的情感属性与相关动作的情感内涵。