Chapter 14 :The new novelty dimension: Method artifact or basic dimension in the cognitive structure of the emotion domain?

Authors : J. R. J. Fontaine & E. Veirman

Abstract : The GRID instrument is the first instrument to identify novelty as a separate dimension in the emotion domain. The question is whether the emergence of this dimension is a method artifact due to an unintended overrepresentation of novelty features or a genuine dimension in the cognitive representation in the meaning of emotion terms. In the latter case it should also be possible to identify a novelty dimension with other assessment methods. In the present chapter it is investigated whether similarity ratings between prototypical emotion terms, where respondents can freely choose on which basis they evaluate the similarity between terms, also reveals a novelty dimension. A students sample evaluated the pairwise similarities between 85 emotion terms. A multidimensional scaling of these terms indeed revealed a four-dimensional structure with surprise terms scoring very high on the fourth dimension. Novelty can thus be considered as a genuine dimension in the emotion domain.

Keywords : NOVELTY cognitive representation similarity ratings