Academia
Communications Research Lab
Take your research beyond words and what people say they think. It can be challenging to understand how emotions contribute to message perception, power, and persuasion. iMotions software supports robust psychophysiological tools that have been validated across many research fields. These tools help communications researchers understand the nonverbal and nonconscious aspects of communication.
How the Lab Works
iMotions Lab is the foundation of the setup. It is a single software that runs on a PC computer and allows for study setup, data collection and data analysis.
- Surveys: iMotions integrates with Qualtrics and other popular survey providers as well as having its own survey capabilities.
- Data can be collected in-person in labs or in field settings. Remote studies are also possible, so participants can use their own devices.
- Data Collection: External hardware and multiple camera feeds can be connected to and synchronized in iMotions, providing a rich in-synch tapestry of data for analysis.
- Data can be collected in-person or remotely over the internet from participants’ own devices. For information about remote data collection, see below.
- Data Exports are compatible with most analysis software tools.
Feature Highlights
Study Design
Our easy-to-use study builder is flexible enough to combine multiple modalities simultaneously and accommodate lab and field research. Studies can accommodate both still and dynamic stimuli, so that you can use images or videos in your studies.
Multimodal Data Collection
Synchronize signals from various psychophysiological tools to capture various types of audience reactions, simultaneously.
Emotion
Our facial expression powered by Affectiva and voice analysis module powered by AudEERing automates emotion detection so that you do not have to spend hours scoring videos or audio files.
Attention
With eye tracking, you can follow where your participants are looking and understand what they are looking at, when, and how often. iMotions can help you decide if screen-based eye trackers or eye tracking glasses are better for your research design.
Arousal
Arousal metrics complement emotion detection and attention metrics by providing information about changes in the participants’ nervous system, which are not under conscious control.
Applications in Communications Research
The Communication Lab is a flexible research platform with rigorously tested technologies and validated methods to help you expand your field with psychophysiological insights.
Speakers
Import voice recordings or videos to take your speech analysis beyond words to explore prosody and emotions. With voice analysis you can measure pitch, loudness, speaking rate, and intonation.
You examine which emotions were expressed and more nuanced emotional dimensions including activation, valence, and dominance. Voice metrics can be combined with facial expression analysis, providing insights into when the message, the voice, and the expression align, and when they do not.
In the Lab
Track and quantify attention to understand what part of your message the audience is seeing first, seeing most, and completely missing. Web pages and images can be imported into iMotions as stimuli to be studied in a lab setting with screen-based eye tracking or remotely with web camera-based eye tracking.
Interpersonal Communication
Understanding connection and missed connection in group settings can be complicated undertaking in behavior research. Measure interpersonal synchrony with EEG to understand who is in tune with each other and who is not. ECG can be used to understand the intensities of feelings during group interactions with freely moving participants. Bring more nuance to intercultural interactions, family dynamics, or organizational communication with emotion metrics.
Audience
Examine how people are reacting. Whether you are interested in campaigns and inaugural addresses, award & acceptance speeches, keynotes, debates, or crisis communication, iMotions allows you to capture audience reactions that surveys and interviews cannot capture.
You can measure viewers or listeners’ nonconscious reactions such as attention, emotion and arousal giving indications of how people felt about the speech (and perhaps the speaker).
In the Field
Take your research out in the field with eye-tracking glasses so that billboards, signs, and posters can be tested in their environment. Add voice analysis for walk-and-talk studies, letting pariticipants explain their experience in real-time. iMotions also accommodates virtual reality research, so if you’re interested in VR solutions, just let us know.
Methodology
Expand your research field with validated technologies that add quantitative insights to your empirical research. Complement explicit insights from self-report measures with implicit insights from real-time physiological measures.
Whether you’re exploring climate change communication, investigating political polarization, understanding why we trust and distrust the media, or keeping up with how we communicate on social media platforms, understanding our nonconscious reactions as well as conscious reactions gives high impact insights.
A Versatile Platform
We can help you figure out the best set-up for your current research questions and resources. iMotions is flexible. As your research progresses and your analyses become more complex or your resources change, your designated Customer Success Manager can help you adjust your customized iMotions Communication Research Lab to your upcoming needs.
In-Lab Controlled
Environments
Online Testing
Virtual
Environments
Mobile Studies
Remote Data Collection
No space? No problem.
iMotions Remote Data Collection allows you to conduct eye tracking, facial expression analysis, voice analysis and respiration studies with respondents wherever they are, whenever it suits them. This allows you to gather data from various geographical locations and enhances participant accessibility and inclusivity. Being able to collect data remotely often leads to larger sample sizes and greater diversity, improving the generalizability of your results. Remote Data Collection is a secure way to reduce lab-related logistics and costs while fostering a flexible and adaptive research environment.
Support and Training
All customers receive onboarding and training in using the software by our product experts.
Consultation & Demo before buying
We always make sure you are getting the right setup for your needs
Help center and Dedicated Support
Extensive help center with easy to follow articles and on-call product experts all days of the week.
Personalized Service
All new users meet with their Customer Success Manager after their purchase to help you get of to a great start.
iMotions Academy
Become Certified in using iMotions in our 5 day intensive academy.
Our support staff works out of Copenhagen and Boston and have extensive experience using iMotions for research.
Student Access With Discounted Analysis Licenses
If your lab requires multiple students to access the study data from your iMotions Lab, then this is possible through student licenses which offers all the sam analysis capabilities as the full license. They start from €210 per license.
Support Both Researchers and Students
No matter if you are upgrading your psychology lab or you are just creating your first lab, having an iMotions powered lab is an investment that benefits both individual researchers with access to the lab, but also students who can learn valuable lessons and skills through hands on experience. Read more about EduLabs to find out how we support using iMotions in academic settings.
Multimodal and Hardware Agnostic Research Software
iMotions Lab is the only truly multimodal research solution that allows you to effortlessly combine multiple modalities in one easy to use software.
We are also the only professional software that is hardware agnostic and allows for users to choose the hardware best suited their needs and budget.
Ready to Transform Your
Communications Research?
We believe in personal and dedicated customer service and would love to hear about your project, or even just challenges you have that you would like to overcome with the use of better software.
Publications
See publications from our user base of leading researchers
Blog
Read about psychology and human behavior themes on our blog
Case Studies
See how others use iMotions to power their research labs and achieve unparalleled research efficiency