scholarly journals Participant Training Improves Adherence with Reporting Timeframe for Momentary Subjective Experiences in Ecological Momentary Assessment (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng K. Fred Wen ◽  
Doerte U. Junghaenel ◽  
David B. Newman ◽  
Stefan Schneider ◽  
Marilyn Mendez ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) has the potential to minimize recall bias by having people report on their experiences in the moment (momentary model) or over short periods of time (coverage model). This potential hinges on the assumption that participants provide ratings based on the reporting timeframe instructions prescribed in the EMA items. However, it is unclear what timeframes participants are actually using when they answer EMA questions and whether participant training improves participants’ adherence to the reporting instructions. OBJECTIVE The objectives of this study are to investigate the reporting timeframes participants used when answering EMA questions and whether participant training improves participants’ adherence to the EMA reporting timeframe instructions. METHODS This study used telephone-based cognitive interviews to investigate this question. In a 2x2 factorial design, participants (n=100) were assigned to receive either basic or enhanced EMA training and also randomized to rate their experiences using a momentary (at the moment you were called) or coverage (since the last phone call) model. Participants received 5 calls over the course of one day to provide ratings; after each rating, participants were immediately interviewed about the timeframe that they used to answer the EMA questions. Two raters independently coded the momentary interview responses into timeframe categories (Cohen’s kappa = 0.64 (95%CI: 0.55-0.73)). RESULTS Results from the momentary conditions showed that most of the calls referred to the period during the call (28.6%) or just before the call (49.2%) to provide ratings; the remainder were from longer reporting periods. Multinomial logistic regression results indicated a significant training effect (χ2 (1, 199)=16.61, p<0.001), where the enhanced training condition yielded more reports within the intended reporting timeframes for momentary EMA reports. Cognitive interview data from the coverage model did not lend themselves to reliable coding and were not analyzed. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide the first evidence about adherence to EMA instructions to reporting periods, and that enhanced participant training improves adherence to the timeframe specified in momentary EMA studies.


10.2196/28007 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng K. Fred Wen ◽  
Doerte U. Junghaenel ◽  
David B. Newman ◽  
Stefan Schneider ◽  
Marilyn Mendez ◽  
...  


Buildings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lina Engelen ◽  
Fabian Held

Studying the workplace often involves using observational, self-report recall, or focus group tools, which all have their established advantages and disadvantages. There is, however, a need for a readily available, low-invasive method that can provide longitudinal, repeated, and concurrent in-the-moment information to understand the workplace well. In this study, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) was used to collect 508 real-time responses about activities, posture, work performance, social interactions, and mood in 64 adult office workers in three Australian workplaces. The response rate was 53%, and the time to fill out the survey was 50 seconds on average. On average, the participants were sitting, standing, and walking in 84%, 9%, and 7% of survey instances, respectively. The participants reported they were working alone at their desks in 55% of all reported instances. Reported mood varied up to nine points within one person over the course of the post-occupancy observations. EMA can be used to paint a rich picture of occupants’ experiences and perceptions and to gain invaluable understanding of temporal patterns of the workplace, how the space is used, and how aspects of the workplace interact. This information can be used to make improvements to the physical and social workspaces and enhance occupants’ work performance and mood.



2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 1121-1146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Matz-Costa ◽  
Stephanie Cosner Berzin ◽  
Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes ◽  
Cal J Halvorsen

The ecological momentary assessment (EMA) method was used to examine the antecedents and correlates of older adults’ in-the-moment perceptions of meaning at work. Data were collected six times per day for 7 days from 30 older adults who were mostly social entrepreneurs and who were engaged in purpose work (i.e., work that addresses a social problem or issue). We found concurrent effects of two types of affective states (i.e., relaxed and energetic) and generative work behaviors (i.e., sharing information about one’s work and encouraging/inviting others into one’s work) on three measures of perceptions of meaningful work (i.e., high passion for one’s work, high sense of engagement in one’s work, and high connection to a sense of meaning in life). Feeling energetic had a lagged effect on meaningful work approximately 2.5 and 5 hr later in the day. We consider ways to foster engagement in meaningful work as a path toward healthy aging.



Author(s):  
Heather T. Schatten ◽  
Kenneth J. D. Allen ◽  
Michael F. Armey

As emotion is a dynamic construct, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods, which gather data at multiple time points in individuals’ real-world environments, in the moment, are particularly well suited to measure emotion dysregulation and related constructs. EMA methods can identify contextual events that prompt or follow an emotional response. This chapter provides an overview of traditional methods of studying emotion dysregulation and how EMA can be used to capture emotion dysregulation in daily life, both within and independent of psychiatric diagnoses. It reviews the literature on emotion dysregulation and related constructs within specific diagnoses (e.g., depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and eating disorders) and behaviors (e.g., suicide, nonsuicidal self-injury, and alcohol use). Finally, it discusses future directions in EMA research, as well as its implications for psychological treatment.



2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan G.C. Wright ◽  
Johannes Zimmermann

Ambulatory assessment (also known as ecological momentary assessment) has enjoyed enthusiastic implementation in psychological research. The ability to assess thoughts, feelings, behavior, physiology, and context intensively and repeatedly in the moment in an individual’s natural ecology affords access to data that can answer exciting questions about sequences of events and dynamic processes in daily life. Ambulatory assessment also holds unique promise for developing personalized models of individuals (i.e., precision or person-specific assessment) that might be transformative for applied settings such as clinical practice. However, successfully translating ambulatory assessment from bench to bedside is challenging because of the inherent tension between idiographic and nomothetic principles of measurement. We argue that the value of applied ambulatory assessment will be most fully realized by balancing the ability to develop personalized models with ensuring comparability among individuals.



10.2196/11845 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. e11845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron M Mofsen ◽  
Thomas L Rodebaugh ◽  
Ginger E Nicol ◽  
Colin A Depp ◽  
J Philip Miller ◽  
...  

A major problem in mental health clinical trials, such as depression, is low assay sensitivity in primary outcome measures. This has contributed to clinical trial failures, resulting in the exodus of the pharmaceutical industry from the Central Nervous System space. This reduced assay sensitivity in psychiatry outcome measures stems from inappropriately broad measures, recall bias, and poor interrater reliability. Limitations in the ability of traditional measures to differentiate between the trait versus state-like nature of individual depressive symptoms also contributes to measurement error in clinical trials. In this viewpoint, we argue that ecological momentary assessment (EMA)—frequent, real time, in-the-moment assessments of outcomes, delivered via smartphone—can both overcome these psychometric challenges and reduce clinical trial failures by increasing assay sensitivity and minimizing recall and rater bias. Used in this manner, EMA has the potential to further our understanding of treatment response by allowing for the assessment of dynamic interactions between treatment and distinct symptom response.



2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-278
Author(s):  
Kevin Doherty ◽  
Andreas Balaskas ◽  
Gavin Doherty

Abstract Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods and technologies, designed to support the self-report of experience in the moment of daily life, have long been considered poised to revolutionize human-centred research, the practice of design and mental healthcare. The history of EMA is inextricably linked to technology, and mobile devices embody many of the characteristics required to support these methods. However, significant barriers to the design and adoption of these systems remain, including challenges of user engagement, reporting burden, data validity and honest disclosure. While prior research has examined the feasibility of a variety of EMA systems, few reviews have attended to their design. Through inter-disciplinary narrative literature review (n = 342), this paper presents a characterization of the EMA technology design space, drawing upon a diverse set of literatures, contexts, applications and demographic groups. This paper describes the options and strategies available to the EMA systems designer, with an eye towards supporting the design and deployment of EMA technologies for research and clinical practice.



10.2196/13191 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e13191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Ronja Wahl ◽  
Karoline Villinger ◽  
Michael Blumenschein ◽  
Laura Maria König ◽  
Katrin Ziesemer ◽  
...  

Background Why do we eat? Our motives for eating are diverse, ranging from hunger and liking to social norms and affect regulation. Although eating motives can vary from eating event to eating event, which implies substantial moment-to-moment differences, current ways of measuring eating motives rely on single timepoint questionnaires that assess eating motives as situation-stable dispositions (traits). However, mobile technologies including smartphones allow eating events and motives to be captured in real time and real life, thus capturing experienced eating motives in-the-moment (states). Objective This study aimed to examine differences between why people think they eat (trait motives) and why they eat in the moment of consumption (state motives) by comparing a dispositional (trait) and an in-the-moment (state) assessment of eating motives. Methods A total of 15 basic eating motives included in The Eating Motivation Survey (ie, liking, habit, need and hunger, health, convenience, pleasure, traditional eating, natural concerns, sociability, price, visual appeal, weight control, affect regulation, social norms, and social image) were assessed in 35 participants using 2 methodological approaches: (1) a single timepoint dispositional assessment and (2) a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) across 8 days (N=888 meals) capturing eating motives in the moment of eating. Similarities between dispositional and in-the-moment eating motive profiles were assessed according to 4 different indices of profile similarity, that is, overall fit, shape, scatter, and elevation. Moreover, a visualized person × motive data matrix was created to visualize and analyze between- and within-person differences in trait and state eating motives. Results Similarity analyses yielded a good overall fit between the trait and state eating motive profiles across participants, indicated by a double-entry intraclass correlation of 0.52 (P<.001). However, although trait and state motives revealed a comparable rank order (r=0.65; P<.001), trait motives overestimated 12 of 15 state motives (P<.001; d=1.97). Specifically, the participants assumed that 6 motives (need and hunger, price, habit, sociability, traditional eating, and natural concerns) are more essential for eating than they actually were in the moment (d>0.8). Furthermore, the visualized person × motive data matrix revealed substantial interindividual differences in intraindividual motive profiles. Conclusions For a comprehensive understanding of why we eat what we eat, dispositional assessments need to be extended by in-the-moment assessments of eating motives. Smartphone-based EMAs reveal considerable intra- and interindividual differences in eating motives, which are not captured by single timepoint dispositional assessments. Targeting these differences between why people think they eat what they eat and why they actually eat in the moment may hold great promise for tailored mobile health interventions facilitating behavior changes.



2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1076-1081
Author(s):  
Chelsea J Webber ◽  
Erin C O’Hea ◽  
Beau Abar ◽  
Beth Bock ◽  
Edwin D Boudreaux

This 28-day pilot study assessed the feasibility of cell phone ecological momentary assessment in 40 smokers who received emergency department evaluations for acute coronary syndrome. Ecological momentary assessments used familiar touch tone response technology during a cell phone call to capture ratings of illness perceptions, emotion, behavioral intentions, and smoking. Ecological momentary assessments were conducted 1–8 times/day and took 1–2 minutes to complete. The mean ecological momentary assessment call compliance for all 40 subjects was 56.3 percent (standard deviation = 29.4), and during an ecological momentary assessment, 72.5 percent of participants reported a first lapse. We found that first-week call compliance was significantly correlated with subsequent compliance ( r = 0.55, p < 0.001).



2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Ronja Wahl ◽  
Karoline Villinger ◽  
Michael Blumenschein ◽  
Laura Maria König ◽  
Katrin Ziesemer ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Why do we eat? Our motives for eating are diverse, ranging from hunger and liking to social norms and affect regulation. Although eating motives can vary from eating event to eating event, which implies substantial moment-to-moment differences, current ways of measuring eating motives rely on single timepoint questionnaires that assess eating motives as situation-stable dispositions (traits). However, mobile technologies including smartphones allow eating events and motives to be captured in real time and real life, thus capturing experienced eating motives in-the-moment (states). OBJECTIVE This study aimed to examine differences between why people think they eat (trait motives) and why they eat in the moment of consumption (state motives) by comparing a dispositional (trait) and an in-the-moment (state) assessment of eating motives. METHODS A total of 15 basic eating motives included in The Eating Motivation Survey (ie, liking, habit, need and hunger, health, convenience, pleasure, traditional eating, natural concerns, sociability, price, visual appeal, weight control, affect regulation, social norms, and social image) were assessed in 35 participants using 2 methodological approaches: (1) a single timepoint dispositional assessment and (2) a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) across 8 days (N=888 meals) capturing eating motives in the moment of eating. Similarities between dispositional and in-the-moment eating motive profiles were assessed according to 4 different indices of profile similarity, that is, overall fit, shape, scatter, and elevation. Moreover, a visualized person × motive data matrix was created to visualize and analyze between- and within-person differences in trait and state eating motives. RESULTS Similarity analyses yielded a good overall fit between the trait and state eating motive profiles across participants, indicated by a double-entry intraclass correlation of 0.52 (<italic>P</italic>&lt;.001). However, although trait and state motives revealed a comparable rank order (<italic>r</italic>=0.65; <italic>P</italic>&lt;.001), trait motives overestimated 12 of 15 state motives (<italic>P</italic>&lt;.001; <italic>d</italic>=1.97). Specifically, the participants assumed that 6 motives (need and hunger, price, habit, sociability, traditional eating, and natural concerns) are more essential for eating than they actually were in the moment (<italic>d</italic>&gt;0.8). Furthermore, the visualized person × motive data matrix revealed substantial interindividual differences in intraindividual motive profiles. CONCLUSIONS For a comprehensive understanding of why we eat what we eat, dispositional assessments need to be extended by in-the-moment assessments of eating motives. Smartphone-based EMAs reveal considerable intra- and interindividual differences in eating motives, which are not captured by single timepoint dispositional assessments. Targeting these differences between why people think they eat what they eat and why they actually eat in the moment may hold great promise for tailored mobile health interventions facilitating behavior changes.



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