The Geneva affective picture database (GAPED): a new 730-picture database focusing on valence and normative significance

Abstract

In emotional research, efficient designs often rely on successful emotion induction. For visual stimulation, the only reliable database available so far is the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). However, extensive use of these stimuli lowers the impact of the images by increasing the knowledge that participants have of them. Moreover, the limited number of pictures for specific themes in the IAPS database is a concern for studies centered on a specific emotion thematic and for designs requiring a lot of trials from the same kind (e.g., EEG recordings). Thus, in the present article, we present a new database of 730 pictures, the Geneva Affective PicturE Database, which was created to increase the availability of visual emotion stimuli. Four specific negative contents were chosen: spiders, snakes, and scenes that induce emotions related to the violation of moral and legal norms (human rights violation or animal mistreatment). Positive and neutral pictures were also included: Positive pictures represent mainly human and animal babies as well as nature sceneries, whereas neutral pictures mainly depict inanimate objects. The pictures were rated according to valence, arousal, and the congruence of the represented scene with internal (moral) and external (legal) norms. The constitution of the database and the results of the picture ratings are presented.

Spider stimuli improve response inhibition

“…There were two versions of the picture SART, both comprising of a mixture of pictures of spiders and pictures of neutral objects or scenes. Both picture sets were taken from the Geneva Affective Picture Database (GAPED; Dan-Glauser & Scherer, 2011). Examples of the picture stimuli can be seen in Fig 1. Picture stimuli were sized so that they stretched to fit the entire screen, thus their dimensions were the same as the computer screen (377 mm x 303 mm).…”

Unconscious emotions: quantifying and logging something we are not aware of

“…Based on the previous work in this field, there are publicly available databases with affective pictures and sounds that cover the most popular emotions and have been successfully tested [19,20,23]. Unfortunately, there are no databases that contain stimuli capable of eliciting unconscious emotional experiences.…”

Lisbon Symbol Database (LSD): Subjective norms for 600 symbols

“…Already in 1999, Proctor and Vu provided an index of norms and ratings published in the Psychonomic Society journals between 1965 and 1999, which included 142 sets, mostly of verbal materials. We can also find normative data for a variety of visual stimuli, from simple line-drawing sets (e.g., Cycowicz, Friedman, Rothstein, & Snodgrass, 1997;Snodgrass & Vanderwart, 1980) to complex real-life pictures depicting a broad range of contents, such as people, animals, or objects (e.g., Dan-Glauser & Scherer, 2011;Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008;Marchewka, Zurawski, Jednorog, & Grabowska, 2013;Prada, Cunha, Garcia-Marques, & Rodrigues, 2010). A considerable number of databases with normative ratings of human faces are also available in the literature (e.g., Ebner, Riediger, & Lindenberger, 2010;Goeleven, De Raedt, Leyman, & Verschuere, 2008;Langner et al, 2010).…”