Electronic Library for Commercially Usable Emotional Stimuli (EL-CUES): An Annotated Image Database for Emotion Induction validated in a German population

Engelhardt M, Holzer N, Pahl J, Freiherr J (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

DOI: 10.1109/TAFFC.2025.3570090

Abstract

Inducing specific emotional states in participants is a critical step in many behavioral experiments. Researchers often rely on databases that provide validated stimuli, such as images, for emotional elicitation. However, many of these databases have significant limitations, such as outdated image sets, lack of generalizability across different participant demographics, and a restriction to basic research settings, which complicates their use in commercial research and applied sciences. Here, we introduce the Electronic Library for Commercially Usable Emotional Stimuli (EL-CUES) - a stimulus database comprising 210 images annotated for valence, arousal, and basic emotions by 532 German raters, resulting in an average of 116 ratings per image. Based on these annotations, we grouped the images from the EL-CUES database into eight emotional response groups using k-means clustering. We provide a tool for selecting images tailored to specific individual characteristics, such as gender and age, and the desired emotional response. EL-CUES is available for research and commercial licensing, offering a new option for emotion induction in both basic and applied research with enhanced functionality compared to existing databases.

Authors with CRIS profile

Moritz Engelhardt Professur für Neurowissenschaften der sensorischen Wahrnehmung (Stiftungsprofessur) Jessica Freiherr Professur für Neurowissenschaften der sensorischen Wahrnehmung (Stiftungsprofessur)

Involved external institutions

Fraunhofer-Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen (IIS) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Engelhardt, M., Holzer, N., Pahl, J., & Freiherr, J. (2025). Electronic Library for Commercially Usable Emotional Stimuli (EL-CUES): An Annotated Image Database for Emotion Induction validated in a German population. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. https://doi.org/10.1109/TAFFC.2025.3570090

MLA:

Engelhardt, Moritz, et al. "Electronic Library for Commercially Usable Emotional Stimuli (EL-CUES): An Annotated Image Database for Emotion Induction validated in a German population." IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing (2025).

BibTeX: Download