Image Transitions and Viewers’ Emotion: Effects of Cut, Dissolve and Fade on Valence, Arousal and Dominance

The objective of this study is to investigate if the transitions “cut”, “dissolve” and “fade” have different effects on viewers’ emotion. The thesis, after positing the hypotheses of these three transitions, presents the results of the experiment to see if they were confirmed. In the experiment, twenty-five participants watched videos with these transitions, and their reactions were measured with self-report questionnaires, facial expression and EDA. The results showed that the videos had more positive valence with “cut” than the other two. Besides, the elicitation of joy was greater with “cut”, followed by “dissolve” and “fade” and that of sadness was greater with “fade”, followed by “dissolve” and “cut”. Finally, the effects of the video emotions and the transitions had a significant interaction: with every video emotion, the videos had more positive valence with “cut”, the elicitation of joy was greater with “cut” followed by “dissolve” and “fade”, and the elicitation of sadness was greater with “fade” followed by “dissolve” and “cut”. The results are expected to make contributions in the three academic/practical fields. In cognitive psychology, it will help researcher better prepare their materials for their experiments. In filmmaking practice and film studies, they can craft, and construct theories referencing these results.