Do we measure what we want to measure?: Focus on beliefs about definitions of emotion and physiological response and measurement indices

Abstract

This research was conducted as part of a pre-conference held at the joint conference of the Japanese Society of Physiological Psychology and Psychophysiology and the Japan Society for Research on Emotions in 2022 entitled “Do we measure what we want to measure? Toward the measurement of subjective and physiological indices of emotion over the next decade.”

The main purpose of this study was to clarify the beliefs about the definitions of emotion and physiological response and the validity of measurement indices. Participants were asked several questions to assess their beliefs about the definitions and the validity of measurements before and after attending the pre-conference. The results suggest that the beliefs about the validity of subjective index were relatively higher than those of physiological indices such as event-related potential (ERP), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and autonomic nervous system indices. Differences between affiliated academic societies were also discussed.