Setting Physical Activity Goals with a Virtual Coach: Vicarious Experiences, Personalization and Acceptance

Goal-setting is often used in eHealth applications for behavior change as it motivates and helps to stay focused on a desired outcome. However, for goals to be effective, they need to meet criteria such as being specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). Moreover, people need to be confident to reach their goal. We thus...

Experience Sharing Conversational Agent for Type II Diabetes

In this work, a conversational interaction was designed and implemented to test the effect of references to past events or shared experiences rephrased into motivational phrases within the context of working towards a diet related goal that can assist with type II diabetes over multiple sessions.<br/>Prior works that utilized a memory typically...

Motivating PhD candidates with depression symptoms to complete thoughts-strengthening exercises via a conversational agent

PhD students are usually more susceptible than other people to depression-inducing situations, which are not adequately addressed in eHealth systems. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a well-established depression treatment, and one of its therapeutic methods is to change negative thought patterns into positive ones. The new positive...