607
Modern scientific community suggests different
views concerning understanding emotional
mechanism like natural reactions, purely mind
process, or hybrid combination (Lazarous, 1982,
Zajonc,1984;Vosniadou,2001).Ingeneral,wecould
note that psychology considers the emotional
mechanism as a determinist mechanism that pre‐
requiresastimulus–causeincitedinthe
brainbyuse
of the neuraland endocrine system (hormonal), the
response–emotion(Malatesta,2009,Papachristoset
al.,2012b).
Investigating the emotional gravity of words
spokenbyaspeakeranddefineditsemotionalstate
(current or past) constitutes a state of the art issue.
Mostoftheemotionalstate
categorizationsuggested
concern the English language. To overcome this
problem,studieshavebeenconductedthatapproach
themattercross‐culturallyandstudytheassignment
of the categories to various languages. This
assignmenthasconceptualtrapssincethemannerin
which an emotional state is apprehensible; an
emotional state is influenced by
cultural factors as
well.Inaratherrecentcross‐culturalstudydoneby
Fontaine et al., (2007), 144 emotional experiences’
characteristics were examined, which were then
categorized according to the following emotional
“components”: (a) event assessment (arousal), (b)
psychophysiologicalchanges,(c)motorexpressions,
(d) action tendencies, (e) subjective feelings,
and (f)
emotionregulation.
International bibliography contains various
approaches – techniques (sorting algorithms)
concerning linguistic emotional analyses, which are
followed and are based mainly in the existence of
word lists or dictionaries with labels of emotional
gravityalongwithapplicationsinmarketing,cinema,
internet,politicaldiscourseetc(Lambovetal.,2011,
Fotopoulou et al., 2009). There are studies also
concerning sorting English verbs and French verbs
that state emotions based on conceptual and
structural‐syntactical characteristics.For the Greek
languagethereisastudyonverbsofGreekthatstate
emotions based on the theoretical framework
“Lexicon‐Grammar” that is quite
old and doesn’t
contain data from real language use; there are also
somestudiesconcerningGreekadjectivesandverbs
that state emotions and comparison with other
languages (French – Turkish) under the viewpoint:
Structural‐syntactical + conceptual characteristics.
More recent studies in Greek conducted
systematically the noun structures based on the
theoretical framework of “Lexicon‐Grammar” and
theestablishmentofconceptual&syntacticalcriteria
for the distinction and sorting of nouns based on
conceptual‐syntactical characteristics of the
structuresinwhichtheyappear(Papachristosetal.,
2012b).
Specifically, as sentiment analysis and opinion
mining applications tend to utilize more and more
the composition of sentences and to use the value
and properties of the words expressed by its
dependency trees, there is a need for specialized
lexiconswherethisinformationcanbefound.Forthe
analysisofmorecomplexopinionatedtextlikenews,
political documents, and (online) debates the
identification ofthe
attitudeholderandtopicare of
crucialimportance(ChoiandCardie,2008,Jiaetal.,
2009,MoilanenandPulman,2007).Applicationsthat
exploittherelationsbetweenthewordmeaningand
its arguments can better determine sentiment at
sentence‐level and trace emotions and opinions to
theirholders(MaksandVossen,
2012).
3
RELATEDWORKANDSCOPE
The effectiveness evaluation of the educational
software in the educational practice was mainly
based on the experience & analysis (pos‐itivistic)
methods, which accept that knowledge may be
attributed only to the objective reality existing re‐
gardlessofthevaluesandbeliefstheonesseekingto
discover
her. As it shown in the international
bibliography, the use of multiple methods of
evaluation is more effective and the combinatorial
use of quantitative and qualitative approaches
confines their weaknesses (Brannen, 1995, Bryman,
1995,Patton,1990,Retalisetal.,2005,Tsianosetal.,
2009).
Specifically,theMixedMethodsResearch(MMR)
employs a combination of qualitative and
quantitative methods. It has been used asa distinct
approach in the social and behavioral sciences for
more than three decades. MMR is still generating
discussions and debates about its definition, the
methodinvolved,andthestandardsforthequality.
Although still evolving, MMR has
become an
establish approach. It is already considered the 3
rd
research approach, along with the quantitative and
qualitative approaches, and has its own emerging
worldview,vocabulary,andtechniques(Fidel,2008).
Usabilitytestingproceduresusedinuser‐centered
interactiondesigntoevaluateaproductbytestingit
on users. This can be seen as an irreplaceable
usabilitypractice,sinceit
givesdirectinputonhow
realusersusethesystem.Usabilitytestingfocuseson
measuringahuman‐madeproductʹscapacitytomeet
itsintendedpurpose(Dixetal.,2004,Nielsen,1994).
Anumberofusabilitymethodshavebeendeveloped
andpromotedbydifferentresearchers(Neilsonand
Mark,1994).
Inliterature
wemeetasusabilityrequirementsor
goals:(i)Performance,(ii)Accuracy,(iii)Recall,(iv)
Stickiness and (v) Emotional response. Some
usabilitytestingcanbeaccomplishedthroughtheuse
of checklists, guidelines, and principles. Most
usabilitytestingmethods involvetestsonreal users
and require human observers to evaluate the
outcomes
ofthetest.Consequently,usabilitytesting
tends to be rather labor intensive (Norman, 2006).
Severalstudieshaveattemptedtocompareusability‐
testing methods in terms of their ability to identify
types of usability problems and their influence on
designers(JohnandMarks,1997).Questionnairesare
often regarded as an inexpensive and
convenient
way to gather data from a large number of
participants. As adopted by many HCI (Human‐
Computer Interaction) and usability engineering
practitioners, the attitude questionnaire can be
transformedintoasocalledsatisfactionquestionnaire
(Czaja and Blair, 1996, Ryu, 2005). On other hand,
Qualitativeresearchmethodsweredevelopedinthe
social sciences to enable researchers to study social