A Comparative Analysis of Dynamic and Static Indicators of Parasympathetic and Sympathetic Nervous System Activation During TV Viewing

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to examine the relative validity of a set of psychophysiological measures as psychological correlates of attention and arousal when watching moving audio/visual messages. To do this, participants watched film clips selected to vary on three media variables known to influence both attention and arousal: structural pacing (slow or fast), valence of emotion (pleasant, unpleasant), and level of arousing content (calm, arousing). Heart rate and skin conductance were measured time-locked to the presentation of each film clip. A variety of analysis techniques for each of these measures, some dynamic and some static, were compared with one another on their ability to perform in a manner suggested by general theoretical predictions. Strengths and weaknesses of each measure are identified based on these comparisons and recommendations about best practices are made.

Notes

¹ Although a standard recording period of five minutes has been recommended for HRV analyses in a clinical setting (Task Force, 1996), close reading of these guidelines suggest a duration of at least 10 times the wavelength of the lower frequency bound of the investigated component or item of interest should be collected (Berntson et al., 1997). This was recently confirmed by Berntson and Barbanera (2014), particularly for HRV indices of parasympathetic innervation such as RSA. However, also see Toichi et al. (1997) who obtained predicted sympathetic results in the CSI measure using three minutes of data.