In two previous experiments, we studied how stimulus
motion affects both the self-report of emotion experience
and the physiological sequelae of emotion. In both studies,
image motion intensified emotional responding, and the
effect of motion was relatively specific to the arousal
dimension of the emotion; there was little evidence that
image motion altered the valence of the image. Moving images
also appeared to sustain the attention of the participants
for a longer period of time than did the still images.
In these two experiments, however, image motion was manipulated
within participants. In 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 this increment is not dependent on the
context in which motion is introduced.