Collaboratively Setting Daily Step Goals with a Virtual Coach: Using Reinforcement Learning to Personalize Initial Proposals

Goal-setting is commonly used in behavior change applications for physical activity. However, for goals to be effective, they need to be tailored to a user’s situation (e.g., motivation, progress). One way to obtain such goals is a collaborative process in which a healthcare professional and client set a goal together, thus making use of the...

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...

Persuading to Prepare for Quitting Smoking with a Virtual Coach: Using States and User Characteristics to Predict Behavior

Despite their prevalence in eHealth applications for behavior change, persuasive messages tend to have small effects on behavior. Conditions or states (e.g., confidence, knowledge, motivation) and characteristics (e.g., gender, age, personality) of persuadees are two promising components for more effective algorithms for choosing persuasive...

Effectiveness of User States, Demographics and Traits in Persuading to Quit Smoking

This document is an encore abstract of the paper “Persuading to Prepare for Quitting Smoking with a Virtual Coach: Using States and User Characteristics to Predict Behavior” presented at AAMAS 2023.

Reducing social diabetes distress with a conversational agent support system: A three-week technology feasibility evaluation

Background: People with diabetes mellitus not only have to deal with physical health problems, but also with the psycho-social challenges their chronic disease brings. Currently, technological tools that support the psycho-social context of a patient have received little attention.<br/><br/>Objective: The objective of this work is to determine...

Attitudes Toward a Virtual Smoking Cessation Coach: Relationship and Willingness to Continue

Virtual coaches have the potential to address the low adherence common to eHealth applications for behavior change by, for example, providing motivational support. However, given the multitude of factors affecting users’ attitudes toward virtual coaches, more insights are needed on how such virtual coaches can be designed to affect these...

Reusable Virtual Coach for Smoking Cessation and Physical Activity Coaching

Smoking tobacco and physical inactivity are key preventable behavioural risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Computerised coaching systems can help individuals to modify risky behaviours, thereby preventing CVD. However, most reported eHealth or computerized coaching systems are hard to reuse in slightly different settings. To provide...

Users’ needs for a digital smoking cessation application and how to address them: A mixed-methods study

Background<br/>Despite their increasing prevalence and potential, eHealth applications for behavior change suffer from a lack of adherence and from dropout. Advances in virtual coach technology provide new opportunities to improve this. However, these applications still do not always offer what people need. We, therefore, need a better...

Using a Virtual Coach to Quit Smoking: 14 Themes for User Needs

Reinforcement Learning-Based Persuasion by a Conversational Agent for Behavior Change

Adaptive Data-Driven Persuasive Communication for a Conversational Agent to Support Behavior Change

A human therapist continuously adapts how they persuade a client to adhere to a behavior change intervention based on theoretical expertise, past experience with the client as well as other clients, and the client's current situation. We aim at incorporating these elements into the persuasive communication of a conversational agent that acts as...

Reinforcement Learning-Based Persuasion by a Conversational Agent for Behavior Change

Considering patient safety in autonomous e-mental health systems - Detecting risk situations and referring patients back to human care

Background: Digital health interventions can fill gaps in mental healthcare provision. However, autonomous e-mental health (AEMH) systems also present challenges for effective risk management. To balance autonomy and safety, AEMH systems need to detect risk situations and act on these appropriately. One option is sending automatic alerts to...

How should a virtual agent present psychoeducation?: Influence of verbal and textual presentation on adherence

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:<br/>With the rise of autonomous e-mental health applications, virtual agents can play a major role in improving trustworthiness, therapy outcome and adherence. In these applications, it is important that patients adhere in the sense that they perform the tasks, but also that they adhere to the specific recommendations...

Talk and Tools: The best of both worlds in mobile user interfaces for E-coaching

In this paper, a user interface paradigm, called Talk-and-Tools, is presented for automated e-coaching. The paradigm is based on the idea that people interact in two ways with their environment: symbolically and physically. The main goal is to show how the paradigm can be applied in the design of interactive systems that offer an acceptable...

A Therapy System for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Using a Virtual Agent and Virtual Storytelling to Reconstruct Traumatic Memories

Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is well treatable, many people do not get the desired treatment due to barriers to care (such as stigma and cost). This paper presents a system that bridges this gap by enabling patients to follow therapy at home. A therapist is only involved remotely, to monitor progress and serve as a safety...