Designing Behavioral Feedback Visualizations to Support Health Behavior Change

Health technology has the potential to support behavior change by measuring performance and providing users with visualizations of this performance as feedback. Such visual feedback has had limited success in changing health behaviors, but it is not clear why. We conducted a systematic review of the visual feedback literature to develop an organizational framework representing the visual feedback-action process. We identified the components that have been investigated in the context of visual feedback. These components are classified into four categories: visualization types (e.g., bar graph) and variables (e.g., color); feedback characteristics (e.g., social comparison); psychological processes (e.g., motivation) and action (e.g., exercise). The insights will inform the design of feedback visualizations in a smartphone application to support medication adherence for older adults. More broadly, this integrative perspective will yield principles of feedback visualization techniques and components that influence the behavior change process and develop a roadmap to facilitate the design.

Organisational and environmental indicators of B2B sales performance

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to confirm a conceptualised framework regarding organizational and environmental indicators of sales performance on sellers in a business-to-business environment. The study is based on the meta-analyses of sales performance by Churchill et al. (1985) and Verbeke et al. (2011).Design/methodology/approachA research instrument was used to establish whether three categories that were positioned into a framework of six dimensions can be perceived as valid and reliable. These categories related to organization and environmental indicators of sales performance. A wide variety of organization that are representative of different sectors and organizational sizes were included in the study. These industries and sectors are representative of the commercial sector of Norway.FindingsA six-dimensional framework of organizational and environmental indicators was tested with success in the study. The different dimensions encompass a focus on the external environment, market orientation (internal environment), teamwork (internal environment), positive behavioral feedback (supervisory leadership), transformational leadership (supervisory leadership) and positive feedback (supervisory leadership).Originality/valueA foundation is provided to structure the assessment of sales performance in business-to-business settings through the development of a business-to-business framework of organisational and environmental indicators in sales performance. In addition, a foundation for further studies on sales performance is delivered. Therefore, the study secures a practical orientation to organise and structure the process of business-to-business environmental and organisational planning through verified categories of organisational and environmental indicators, divided into six categories.

Hippocampus and striatum encode distinct task regularities that guide human timing behavior

The brain encodes the statistical regularities of the environment in a task-specific yet flexible and generalizable format. How it does so remains poorly understood. Here, we seek to understand this by converging two parallel lines of research, one centered on striatal-dependent sensorimotor timing, and the other on hippocampal-dependent cognitive mapping. We combined functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with a visual-tracking and time-to-contact (TTC) estimation task, revealing the widespread brain network supporting sensorimotor learning in real-time. Hippocampal and caudate activity signaled the behavioral feedback within trials and the improvements in performance across trials, suggesting that both structures encode behavior-dependent information rapidly. Critically, hippocampal learning signals generalized across tested intervals, while striatal ones did not, and together they explained both the trial-wise performance and the regression-to-the-mean biases in TTC estimation. Our results suggest that a fundamental function of hippocampal-striatal interactions may be to solve a trade-off between specificity vs. generalization, enabling the flexible and domain-general expression of human timing behavior broadly.

Individual variability of neural computations in the primate retina

Variation in the neural code between individuals contributes to making each person unique. Using ∼100 neural population recordings from major ganglion cell types in the macaque retina, we develop an interpretable computational representation of individual variability using machine learning. This representation preserves invariances, such as asymmetries between ON and OFF cells, while capturing individual variation and covariation in properties such as nonlinearity, temporal dynamics, and spatial receptive field size. The similarity of these properties across cell types was dependent on the similarity of their synaptic connections. Surprisingly, male retinas exhibited higher firing rates and faster temporal integration than female retinas. By exploiting data from previously recorded macaque retinas, a new macaque retina (and crucially, a human retina) could be efficiently characterized. Simulations indicated that combining a vast dataset of healthy macaque recordings with behavioral feedback could be used to identify the neural code and improve retinal implants for treating blindness.

Improving antimicrobial prescribing for upper respiratory infections in the emergency department: Implementation of peer comparison with behavioral feedback

Objective: To reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) by employing peer comparison with behavioral feedback in the emergency department (ED). Design: A controlled before-and-after study. Setting: The study was conducted in 5 adult EDs at teaching and community hospitals in a health system. Patients: Adults presenting to the ED with a respiratory condition diagnosis code. Hospitalized patients and those with a diagnosis code for a non-respiratory condition for which antibiotics are or may be warranted were excluded. Interventions: After a baseline period from January 2016 to March 2018, 3 EDs implemented a feedback intervention with peer comparison between April 2018 and December 2019 for attending physicians. Also, 2 EDs in the health system served as controls. Using interrupted time series analysis, the inappropriate ARI prescribing rate was calculated as the proportion of antibiotic-inappropriate ARI encounters with a prescription. Prescribing rates were also evaluated for all ARIs. Attending physicians at intervention sites received biannual e-mails with their inappropriate prescribing rate and had access to a dashboard that was updated daily showing their performance relative to their peers. Results: Among 28,544 ARI encounters, the inappropriate prescribing rate remained stable at the control EDs between the 2 periods (23.0% and 23.8%). At the intervention sites, the inappropriate prescribing rate decreased significantly from 22.0% to 15.2%. Between periods, the overall ARI prescribing rate was 38.1% and 40.6% in the control group and 35.9% and 30.6% in the intervention group. Conclusions: Behavioral feedback with peer comparison can be implemented effectively in the ED to reduce inappropriate prescribing for ARIs.

Fast behavioral feedbacks make ecosystems sensitive to pace and not just magnitude of anthropogenic environmental change

Anthropogenic environmental change is altering the behavior of animals in ecosystems around the world. Although behavior typically occurs on much faster timescales than demography, it can nevertheless influence demographic processes. Here, we use detailed data on behavior and empirical estimates of demography from a coral reef ecosystem to develop a coupled behavioral–demographic ecosystem model. Analysis of the model reveals that behavior and demography feed back on one another to determine how the ecosystem responds to anthropogenic forcing. In particular, an empirically observed feedback between the density and foraging behavior of herbivorous fish leads to alternative stable ecosystem states of coral population persistence or collapse (and complete algal dominance). This feedback makes the ecosystem more prone to coral collapse under fishing pressure but also more prone to recovery as fishing is reduced. Moreover, because of the behavioral feedback, the response of the ecosystem to changes in fishing pressure depends not only on the magnitude of changes in fishing but also on the pace at which changes are imposed. For example, quickly increasing fishing to a given level can collapse an ecosystem that would persist under more gradual change. Our results reveal conditions under which the pace and not just the magnitude of external forcing can dictate the response of ecosystems to environmental change. More generally, our multiscale behavioral–demographic framework demonstrates how high-resolution behavioral data can be incorporated into ecological models to better understand how ecosystems will respond to perturbations.

How to Make COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps work: Insights From Behavioral Economics

Due to network effects, Contact Tracing Apps (CTAs) are only effective if many people download them. However, the response to CTAs has been tepid. For example, in France less than 2 million people (roughly 3% of the population) downloaded the CTA. Against this background, we carry out an online experiment to show that CTAs can still play a key role in containing the spread of COVID-19, provided that they are re-conceptualized to account for insights from behavioral science. We start by showing that carefully devised in-app notifications are effective in inducing prudent behavior like wearing a mask or staying home. In particular, people that are notified that they are taking too much risk and could become a superspreader engage in more prudent behavior. Building on this result, we suggest that CTAs should be re-framed as Behavioral Feedback Apps (BFAs). The main function of BFAs would be providing users with information on how to minimize the risk of contracting COVID-19, like how crowded a store is likely to be. Moreover, the BFA could have a rating system that allows users to flag stores that do not respect safety norms like wearing masks. These functions can inform the behavior of app users, thus playing a key role in containing the spread of the virus even if a small percentage of people download the BFA. While effective contact tracing is impossible when only 3% of the population downloads the app, less risk taking by small portions of the population can produce large benefits. BFAs can be programmed so that users can also activate a tracing function akin to the one currently carried out by CTAs. Making contact tracing an ancillary, opt-in function might facilitate a wider acceptance of BFAs.

Unilateral vocal nerve resection alters neurogenesis in the avian song system in a region-specific manner

New neurons undergo a critical period soon after migration during which the behavior of the animal may result in the survival or culling of these cells. In the songbird song system, new neurons may be maintained in the song motor pathway with respect to motor progression toward a target song--during juvenile song learning, seasonal song restructuring, and experimentally manipulated song variability. However, it is not known whether the quality of song per se, without progressive improvement, may also influence new neuron survival. To test this idea, we experimentally altered song acoustic structure by unilateral denervation of the syrinx. We found no effect of aberrant song on numbers of new neurons in the HVC of the song motor pathway, a loss of left-side dominance in new neurons in the auditory region caudomedial nidopallium (NCM), and a bilateral decrease in new neurons in the basal ganglia nucleus Area X. We propose new neuron survival may be determined in response to behavioral feedback in accordance with the function of new neurons within a given brain region. Studying the effects of singing behaviors on new neurons across multiple brain regions that subserve singing may give rise to general rules underlying the regulation of new neuron survival across taxa and brain regions more broadly.

Motor Vehicle CO2 Emissions in the United States: Potential Behavioral Feedback and Global Warming

The previously found correlation of average annual temperature and motor vehicle travel among U.S. states suggests amplifying feedback of increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and warming. This study employed a regression model relating average annual temperature to motor vehicle CO2 emissions among the 48 contiguous states, controlling for other factors that affect travel. Increased emissions were associated with higher temperatures during 2000–14. Application of the model to 2015–16 data indicated that 27 million metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2015 and 38 million metric tons in 2016 would have not occurred if the average annual temperatures among U.S. states in those years had remained at 2014 levels. A 2018 proposal by the U.S. government to reduce future vehicle fuel economy standards ignored the potential effect of warming on vehicle travel and contained erroneous analyses of the relation of vehicle weight to fatality risk, vehicle scrappage rate to new vehicle sales, and the relation of new vehicle costs to fuel economy. Huge improvement in fuel economy and reduced CO2 emissions based on required hybrid technology are possible at reasonable cost.