Image motion and context: A between- and within-subjects comparison

In two previous experiments, we studied how stimulus motion affects bath th e self-report of emotion experience and the physiological sequelae of emoti on. In both studies, image motion intensified emotional responding, and the effect of motion was relatively specific to the arousal dimension of the e motion; there was little evidence that image motion altered the valence of the image. Moving images also appeared to sustain the attention of the part icipants for a longer period of time than did the still images. In these tw o experiments, however, image motion was manipulated within participants. I n the present experiment, we used a between-subjects manipulation of image motion and found a nearly identical pattern of results. These data indicate that motion inherently increments the arousal value of an image and that t his increment is not dependent on the context in which motion is introduced .