PDF (PhD Thesis Susan Chipchase) - Nottingham eTheses ...

There were 540 photographs of objects (270 pairs) rated individually
for valence and arousal on an 11-point scale, from -5 (negative) to +5 (positive)
and -5 (calming / soothing) to +5 (exciting / agitating) respectively.
Participants were told to base their ratings on their initial reaction to the objects
in the photographs. Twenty University of Nottingham students conducted the
ratings (13 female; Mean age: 19.55 years, SD 1.61). The negative and neutral
groups of stimuli were given distinct mean average item ratings (with range
and standard deviation in parentheses) for valence of -1.89 (-3.90 to -0.40;
0.82) and 0.79 (-0.35 to 2.55; 0.61) and for arousal of 2.20 (-0.5 to 3.70; 0.82),
and -0.76 (-2.65 to 1.25; 0.70) respectively.
Perceptual features:
i) Similarity.
There were 405 pairs of photographs of objects rated for similarity
between the items in a pair by 10 University of Nottingham students (7 female;
Mean age: 26.80 years, SD 3.46 years). Each pair was rated on a scale of 1
(items incredibly similar) to 10 (items incredibly different). The average ratings
of similarity between items were comparable between the negative and neutral
and object pairs with item means (with standard deviation in parentheses) of
3.39 (1.37) and 4.04 (1.28) respectively.
ii) Dimensions of change.
There were 405 pairs of photographs of objects rated for the dimensions
that could differ between the two items in the pair (colour, shape, size,
orientation) by two University of Nottingham students (2 female; Mean age:
27.50 years). A rating of 0 indicated that no change in a particular dimension
occurred (e.g., if both pumpkins were orange); a rating of 0.5 indicated a slight
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