Sergio Cervera Torres, PhD Student
Hometown: Valencia, Spain
Affiliation: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), Multi-Modal Interaction Lab
What are you working on?
My project is framed in psychological theories of embodied and spatial cognition. That means that bodily and physical experiences might be connected to the way we think and feel. Our interest is to bring this approach to a multi-touch environment in order to investigate how multi-touch interactions, like arm and hand movements, may potentially influence the processing of emotional information.
Why is it interesting?
The technological development is bringing to us the opportunity to establish a full range of new kind of interactions with different devices. From smartphones to virtual reality we are encouraged to use our body to manipulate digital information and also to communicate with others. Studying these interactions may help us to understand how we perceive positive and negative information in digital environments.
How are you going to find out?
Experiments where participants are asked to directly touch and move different emotional objects in a multi-touch environment allow us to measure the emotional evaluation of these objects depending on the interaction gestures. Additionally, I approach the data using multi-level models.
Your favorite thing outside of science?
I love being in contact with nature. Hiking, trail running and rock climbing are my favourite sports. I also like travelling around the world and to learn from different cultures.
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