Analysis Environment: analysing individual users

The Analysis Environment in Cinemetrics is where you review and annotate individual respondents' reaction to the stimuli. This section explains each component of the Analysis Environment and how to effectively use its features to understand the viewer reaction based on the respondents' GSR, heart rate (HR) data, and eye-tracking.

Understanding the Analysis Environment UI

View of the Analysis environment.

The Analysis Environment is structured as fallows, based on the image above:

1. Respondent Info & Questionnaire:

   This section on the left side of the screen allows you to manage the respondent's metadata and qualitative feedback:

   1. Respondent Info Tab: Displays key respondent details such as Name, Age, Gender, and other metadata.

   2. The Questionnaire Tab allows the analyst to input or review responses to a custom questionnaire designed for the respondent. You can add or modify questions by clicking + Add Questions, tailoring each question to your study needs. To learn how to use and navigate the questionnaire maker, you can follow this guide.

2. Video Playback & Eye Tracking:

   This section contains the video playback, and also displays the gaze point of the selected respondent, if eye tracking data was collected.

   1. Open Video Window: This option opens the video in a separate, larger window for a more detailed view. You can use this feature to ask specific question to respondents and showing them a specific section of the video, without revealing the rest of the data to them.

3. Comments and Annotations: The Comments and Annotations allows to leave time-stamped comments and observations. Each comment can be colour coded to your needs. Colour coded comments appear on the GSR graph at the bottom of the screen.

Pro Tip 1: You can use the colour coded annotation feature to label specific reactions or immersion level. By doing so, in the Results environment you can view a gradient-like visualization of emotional or physiological of multiple selected respondents.

1. GSR Offset Adjustment: GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) delay is the natural physiological delay between when a stimulus is presented and when the body's skin conductance reflects a measurable response. This delay results from the time it takes for the body to register a stimulus and trigger a reaction, such as increased emotional arousal. Typically, the delay averages around 2.5 seconds, though it can vary depending on the individual and the intensity of the stimulus. The software provides a manual GSR Offset adjustment feature to account for this delay. GSR offsets are unique for each individual respondent. Click Apply to lock and save the GSR offset for the current respondent.

Pro Tip 2: To calibrate this delay, consider including a strong, clear stimulus (such as a loud sound or sudden visual) toward the end of the video. You can then adjust the offset by visually matching the peak in GSR with the stimulus in the video.

1. GSR and HR Data, and comment annotation bubbles The GSR and HR graph is at the bottom of the Analysis Environment, which presents the respondent's Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) and Heart Rate (HR) data over time.

   1. GSR (µS): Displayed on the left Y-axis (represented by a blue line), the GSR data measures changes in skin conductance, which reflect levels of emotional arousal or stress.

   2. HR (bpm): Displayed on the right Y-axis (orange line), heart rate is derived from the PPG signal registered by the Shimmer device. Some smoothing is applied to the curve.

   3. X-axis (Time in seconds): The horizontal axis represents time.

   In addition, comment annotation bubbles are represented as color-coded icons on the graph.

Saving Data

At the of each environment, you will find a Save Data button. We recommend saving your progress regularly. The program does not auto-save.