Affective auditory stimuli: Adaptation of the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS-2) for European Portuguese

In this study, we present the normative values of the adaptation of the International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS-2; Bradley & Lang, 2007a) for European Portuguese (EP). The IADS-2 is a standardized database of 167 naturally occurring sounds that is widely used in the study of emotions. The sounds were rated by 300 college students who were native speakers of EP, in the three affective dimensions of valence, arousal, and dominance, by using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The aims of this adaptation were threefold: (1) to provide researchers with standardized and normatively rated affective sounds to be used with an EP population; (2) to investigate sex and cultural differences in the ratings of affective dimensions of auditory stimuli between EP and the American (Bradley & Lang, 2007a) and Spanish (Fernandez-Abascal et al., Psicothema 20: 104-113 2008; Redondo, Fraga, Padron, & Pineiro, Behavior Research Methods 40: 784790 2008) standardizations; and (3) to promote research on auditory affective processing in Portugal. Our results indicated that the IADS-2 is a valid and useful database of digitized sounds for the study of emotions in a Portuguese context, allowing for comparisons of its results with those of other international studies that have used the same database for stimulus selection. The normative values of the EP adaptation of the IADS-2 database can be downloaded along with the online version of this article.
This work is part of the research project “Procura Palavras (P-Pal): A Software Program for Deriving Objective and Subjective Psycholinguistic Indices for European Portuguese Words” (PTDC/PSI-PCO/104679/2008), funded by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia), and FEDER (Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional), through the European programs QREN (Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional), and COMPETE (Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade).