Measurement of emotional response to sensory stimuli

A method of comparing the emotional response of at least one subject of a plurality of subjects to one or more specific sensory stimuli with a desired emotional response, including the steps of:

• (a) establishing a plurality of basic emotions for measurement, including one or more positive affect emotions and one or more negative affect emotions;
• (b) determining desired relative emotional response values for each of the plurality of basic emotions;
• (c) presenting the subject with a first sensory stimulus;
• (d) for each basic emotion, presenting the subject with a computer-generated display comprising interactive animated visual images representative of metaphorical concept corresponding with the basic emotion;
• (e) receiving input from the subject via a computer interface whereby the subject is enabled to adapt the animated visual images to accord with an emotional response to the sensory stimulus;
• (f) a computer-implemented processor converting the received input to a corresponding quantitative emotional response value for each basic emotion;
• (g) the computer-implemented processor performing a statistical analysis employing a latent variable mathematical model of the quantitative emotional response values of the plurality of subjects to identify one or more latent constructs, each of which comprises a subgroup of the plurality of basic emotions;
• and
• (h) the computer-implemented processor generating a visual presentation comprising distinct comparative representations of the quantitative emotional response values of the plurality of subjects for each one of the plurality of basic emotions within the identified latent constructs, along with the corresponding desired emotional response values, whereby a correlation between relative emotional responses of the plurality of subjects in respect of each one of the plurality of basic emotions within the identified latent constructs and the corresponding desired emotional response is visually distinguishable.

A computer-implemented system for measuring the emotional response of at least one subject of a plurality of subjects to a specific sensory stimulus, the system comprising:

• at least one microprocessor;
• at least one memory device, operatively coupled to the microprocessor;
• and
• at least one input/output peripheral interface, operatively coupled to the microprocessor,
• wherein the memory device contains executable instruction code which, when executed by the microprocessor, causes the system to implement a method comprising the steps of:
• for each one of a plurality of basic emotions, including one or more positive affect emotions and one or more negative affect emotions, presenting the subject via the peripheral interface with a computer-generated display comprising interactive animated visual images representative of a metaphorical concept corresponding with the basic emotion;
• receiving input from the subject via the peripheral interface whereby the subject is enabled to adapt the animated visual images to accord with an emotional response to a sensory stimulus previously presented to the subject;
• converting the received input to a corresponding quantitative emotional response value for each basic emotion;
• performing a statistical analysis employing a latent variable mathematical model of the quantitative emotional response values of the plurality of subjects to identify one or more latent constructs, each of which comprises a subgroup of the plurality of basic emotions;
• and
• generating a visual presentation comprising distinct representations of each one of the quantitative emotional response values for the plurality of basic emotions within the identified latent constructs, in which emotional responses of the plurality of subjects in respect of each one of the plurality of basic emotions within the identified latent constructs is visually distinguishable relative to all others of the plurality of basic emotions.