The NCCR brings together outstanding knowledge from different methodological areas that will be used to develop a comprehensive method tool box for the affective sciences, constituting not only a unified methodological basis for the different projects, but also, by sharing with outside projects, contributing to the methodological sophistication in the affective sciences in general. Given the multilevel character of emotions, several measurement methods (physiological measures, brain imaging, observational methods, self- and other report), different research strategies (laboratory experiments, ambulatory and field assessment), and advanced multivariate and time-line methods of data analysis and structural modeling are required for a comprehensive insight into affective phenomena.

This transversal module also helps to articulate the relationship between fundamental and applied research, laying the foundations for clinical, prevention, and intervention strategies, which need to rely on data obtained with methods that are reliable, empirically validated, and yet pertinent to applied domains.

The methodological developments under this transversal module include:

The Geneva Voice Toolbox (GVT) : A tool to manipulate speech recordings with parametric control over acoustic cues (Tamarit)

The Geneva Appraisal Dictionary (GAD) (With)

The bodily expression of emotion. Development of a body action and position coding system (Dael)

Web methodology (Grandjean, Michel, Wranik, Kapusova)

Signal processing on EEG and Local Field Potentials and data visualisation (Grandjean, Tamarit)