Towards an artificial therapy assistant: Measuring excessive stress from speech

The measurement of (excessive) stress is still a challenging endeavor. Most tools rely on either introspection or expert opinion and are, therefore, often less reliable or a burden on the patient. An objective method could relieve these problems and, consequently, assist diagnostics. Speech was considered an excellent candidate for an objective, unobtrusive measure of emotion. True stress was successfully induced, using two storytelling\ud sessions performed by 25 patients suffering from a stress disorder. When reading either a happy or a sad story, different stress levels were reported using the Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD). A linear regression model consisting of the high-frequency energy, pitch, and zero crossings of the speech signal was able to explain 70% of the variance in the subjectively reported stress. The results demonstrate the feasibility of an objective measurement of stress in speech. As such, the foundation for an Artificial Therapeutic Agent is laid, capable of assisting therapists through an objective measurement of experienced stress

Computer Aided Diagnosis for mental health care: On the Clinical Validation of Sensitive Machines

This study explores the feasibility of sensitive machines; that is, machines with empathic abilities, at least to some extent. A signal processing and machine learning pipeline is presented that is used to analyze data from two studies in which 25 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) patients participated. The feasibility of speech as a stress detector was validated in a clinical setting, using the Subjective Unit of Distress (SUD). 13 statistical parameters were derived from five speech features, namely: amplitude, zero crossings, power, high-frequency power, and pitch. To achieve a low dimensional representation, a subset of 28 parameters was selected and, subsequently, compressed into 11 principal components (PC). Using a Multi-Layer Perceptron neural network (MLP), the set of 11 PC were mapped upon 9 distinct quantizations of the SUD. The MLP was able to discriminate between 2 stress levels with 82.4% accuracy and up to 10 stress levels with 36.3% accuracy. With stress baptized as being the black death of the 21st century, this work can be conceived as an important step towards computer aided mental health care

Therapy Progress Indicator (TPI): Combining speech parameters and the subjective unit of distress

A posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe handicap in daily life and its treatment is complex. To evaluate the success of treatments, an objective and unobtrusive expert system was envisioned: an therapy progress indicator (TPI). Speech was considered as an excellent candidate for providing an objective, unobtrusive emotion measure. Speech of 26 PTSD patients was recorded while they participated in two reliving sessions: re-experiencing their last panic attack and their last joyful occasion. As a subjective measure, the subjective unit of distress was determined, which enabled the validation of derived speech features. A set of parameters of the speech features: signal, power, zero crossing ratio, and pitch, was found to discriminate between the two sessions. A regression model involving these parameters was able to distinguish between positive and negative distress. This model lays the foundation for an TPI for patients with PTSD, which enables objective and unobtrusive evaluations of therapies

Seeking socially responsible consumers : exploring the intention-search-behaviour gap

The increasing prominence of "Socially Responsible Consumers" has brought about a heightened focus on the ethical, environmental, social, and ideological dimensions influencing product purchasing decisions. Despite this emphasis, studies have consistently revealed a significant gap between individuals' intentions to be socially responsible and their actual purchasing behaviors: they often choose products that do not align with their values. This paper aims to investigate the role of “search” and it how influences this gap. Our investigation involves an online survey of 286 participants, where we inquire about their search behaviors and whether they considered various dimensions—ranging from price and features to environmental, social, and governance issues — in relation to a recent purchase. Contrary to expectations of a clear intention-behavior gap, our findings suggest most participants exhibited indifference or lack of awareness regarding these "responsible" aspects. While, for those participants who were more ethically minded, they reported difficulties related to searching for and acquiring information regarding such aspects, which contributed to the gap. Our findings suggests that part of the intention-behaviour gap can be framed as an information seeking problem. Moreover our findings motivate the development of search systems and platforms that better help support consumers make more informed and responsible purchasing decisions