Methods and systems for assessing psychological characteristics

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for causing a computing system to:

• maintain a set of sensory stimuli, each of the sensory stimuli being associated with an identified reaction;
• present, to a subject, by a computer through a presentation interface, the sensory stimuli to the subject, including, for each sensory stimulus:
• presenting the sensory stimulus during a presentation period having a duration of more than 500 milliseconds and less than 1000 milliseconds, the duration of the presentation period having been previously defined, the duration of the presentation period being enforced by computer,
• ending the presenting of the sensory stimulus at the end of the presentation period,
• providing a grace period immediately following the end of the presentation period of time, the grace period having a duration of up to 300 milliseconds during which none of the sensory stimuli is presented, the duration of the grace period having been previously defined, the duration of the grace period being enforced by computer, and
• presenting a subsequent sensory stimulus at the end of the grace period;
• receive a response, by the subject, to at least one of the sensory stimuli during a response period including the presentation period and the grace period, the response of the subject to a particular sensory stimulus representing a reaction of the subject to the particular sensory stimulus in relation to a context;
• store information that represents the reaction of the subject to each of the sensory stimuli for which a response was received;
• and
• determine, based on at least some of the stored information, an emotional characterization of the subject in relation to the context.

A system comprising:

• a processor and a memory, the processor and memory configured to:
• maintain a set of sensory stimuli, each of the sensory stimuli being associated with an identified reaction;
• present, to a subject, by a computer through a presentation interface, the sensory stimuli to the subject, including, for each sensory stimulus:
• presenting the sensory stimulus during a presentation period having a duration of more than 500 milliseconds and less than 1000 milliseconds, the duration of the presentation period having been previously defined, the duration of the presentation period being enforced by computer,
• ending the presenting of the sensory stimulus at the end of the presentation period,
• providing a grace period immediately following the end of the presentation period of time, the grace period having a duration of up to 300 milliseconds during which none of the sensory stimuli is presented, the duration of the grace period having been previously defined, the duration of the grace period being enforced by computer, and
• presenting a subsequent sensory stimulus at the end of the grace period;
• receive a response, by the subject, to at least one of the sensory stimuli during a response period including the presentation period and the grace period, the response of the subject to a particular sensory stimulus representing a reaction of the subject to the particular sensory stimulus in relation to a context;
• store information that represents the reaction of the subject to each of the sensory stimuli for which a response was received;
• and
• determine, based on at least some of the stored information, an emotional characterization of the subject in relation to the context.