Cognition and the temporal arts: Investigating audience response to dance using PDAs that record continuous data during live performance

If artists and art explore organization of the brain [Zeki, S., Lamb, M., 1994. The neurology of kinetic art. Brain 117, 607–636], then investigation of response to artistic performance holds promise as a window to perceptual and cognitive processes. A new instrument for recording real-time audience response – the portable Audience Response Facility (pARF) – is described. Twenty, hand-held, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) collect responses on customizable skin interfaces. The pARF server transmits the customizable options, synchronizes devices and collects data for export. We report two studies using the pARF that demonstrate respondent agreement of perceived emotion during particular sections of two dance works. Greater agreement was evident in continuous ratings of arousal than valence; arousal appears to be related to surface features of the dance work. Future applications of the pARF to studies of multi-modal perception and cognition are discussed.