It is a long known reality that humans have difficulty to accurately rate the absolute intensity of internal experiences, yet the predominant way experience sampling (ESM) researchers assess participants' momentary emotion levels is by means of absolute measurement scales. In a daily-life experiment (n = 178), we evaluate the efficacy of two alternative assessment methods that should solicit a simpler, relative emotional evaluation: (a) visualizing a relative anchor point on the absolute rating scale that depicts people's previous emotion rating and (b) phrasing emotion items in a relative way by asking for a comparison with earlier emotion levels, using a relative rating scale. Determining five quality criteria relevant for ESM, we conclude that a visual "Last" anchor significantly improves emotion measurement in daily life: (a) Theoretically, this method has the best perceived user experience, as people, for example, find it the easiest and most accurate way to rate their momentary emotions. Methodologically, this type of measurement generates ESM time series that (b) exhibit less measurement error, produce person-level emotion dynamic measures that are (c) often more stable, and in a few cases show stronger (d) univariate and (e) incremental relations with external criteria like neuroticism and borderline personality (e.g., emotional variability). In sum, we see value in the addition of a relative "Last" anchor to absolute measurement scales of future ESM studies on emotions, as it structures the ambiguous rating space and introduces more standardization within and between individuals. In contrast, using relatively phrased emotion items is not recommended. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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不管是好是坏？可视化先前的强度水平可以改善经验采样中的情绪（动态）测量。


众所周知，人类很难准确评估内部体验的绝对强度，但体验抽样（ESM）研究人员评估参与者瞬时情绪水平的主要方式是通过绝对测量量表。在日常生活实验中（n = 178），我们评估了两种替代评估方法的功效，这两种方法应该寻求更简单的相对情绪评估：（a）在描述人们之前情绪评级的绝对评级量表上可视化相对锚点(b) 通过使用相对评级量表要求与早期情绪水平进行比较，以相对方式表达情绪项目。确定与 ESM 相关的五个质量标准，我们得出结论，视觉“最后”锚点显着改善了日常生活中的情绪测量：（a）理论上，这种方法具有最佳的感知用户体验，例如，人们认为它是最简单且最有效的。评价他们瞬间情绪的最准确方法。从方法上讲，这种类型的测量生成 ESM 时间序列，(b) 表现出较小的测量误差，产生人级情绪动态测量，(c) 通常更稳定，并且在少数情况下表现出更强的 (d) 单变量和 (e)与神经质和边缘人格（例如情绪变化）等外部标准的渐进关系。总之，我们认为在未来 ESM 情绪研究的绝对测量量表中添加相对“最后”锚点是有价值的，因为它构建了模糊的评级空间，并在个体内部和个体之间引入了更多标准化。相反，不建议使用相对措辞的情感项目。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。