A multimedia system for assessment of attachment organizations and heart rate

In this paper, we present a multimedia system named BioBeAMS (Bio-signal Behavior Attachment Multimedia System) for assessment of attachment organizations and heart rate in a strange situation experimental procedure for a mother to child attachment study (a well known psychological procedure). Attachment patterns assessed through this procedure have been conceived as different strategies to regulate the access to relevant attachment information and to process distress-related information. The psycho-physiological activation led by emotional processing of attachment experiences during the strange situation procedure may be a critical factor for understanding the subject's psychological attachment strategies. BioBeAMS is an application which integrates bio-signals, video/audio of the psychological experimental procedure and the rater's coding, running in the MS Window 95 environment on a PC. Using this system, we can acquire ECG signals and capture video and audio in a synchronous way. It also enables the raters to subsequently analyze and evaluate psychological and physiological events during review to study possible relations.