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Digital games have been used as stressors in a range of disciplines for decades. Nonetheless, the underlying characteristics of these stressors and the study in which the stressor was applied are generally not recognized for their moderating effect on the measured physiological stress responses. We have therefore conducted a meta-analysis that analyzes the effects of characteristics of digital game stressors and study design on heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, in studies carried out from 1976 to 2012. In order to assess the differing quality between study designs, a new scale is developed and presented, coined reliability of effect size. The results show specific and consistent moderating functions of both game and study characteristics, on average accounting for around 43%, and in certain cases up to 57% of the variance found in physiological stress responses. Possible cognitive and physiological processes underlying these moderating functions are discussed, and a new model integrating these processes with the moderating functions is presented. These findings indicate that a digital game stressor does not act as a stressor by virtue of being a game, but rather derives its stressor function from its characteristics and the methodology in which it is used. This finding, together with the size of the associated moderations, indicates the need for a standardization of digital game stressors

Automated Dialogue Generation for Behavior Intervention on Mobile Devices

AbstractCommunication in the form of dialogues between a virtual coach and a human patient (coachee) is one of the pillars in an intervention app for smartphones. The virtual coach is considered as a cooperative partner that supports the individual with various exercises for a behavior intervention therapy. To perform its supportive behavior, the coach follows a certain interaction model and its requirements, such as alignment, mutual commitment and adaptation. In this paper, we propose E-Coach MarkUp Language (ECML), a standard XML specification for scripting discourses that define how the virtual coach maintains a dialogue with a coachee following the interaction model. The format of the language allows messages to be tailored at a fine-grained level. Each sentence is synthesized based on the inferred goals of the coaching process and the current beliefs of the user, incorporating everything that has been said previously in the conversation. The design enables inexpensive implementation on mobile devices for a flexible, seamless coaching dialogue. With expert-based evaluations, we validated the language using scenarios on implemented ECML in the field of insomnia therapy

Reminders make people adhere better to a self-help sleep intervention

The experiment presented in this paper investigated the effects of different kinds of reminders on adherence to automated parts of a cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) delivered via a mobile device. Previous studies report that computerized health interventions can be effective. However, treatment adherence is still an issue. Reminders are a simple technique that could improve adherence. A minimal intervention prototype in the realm of sleep treatment was developed to test the effects of reminders on adherence. Two prominent ways to determine the reminder-time are: a) ask users when they want to be reminded, and b) let an algorithm decide when to remind users. The prototype consisted of a sleep diary, a relaxation exercise and reminders. A within subject design was used in which the effect of reminders and two underlying principles were tested by 45 participants that all received the following three different conditions (in random order): a) event-based reminders b) time-based reminders c) no reminders. Both types of reminders improved adherence compared to no reminders. No differences were found between the two types of reminders. Opportunity and self-empowerment could partly mediate adherence to filling out the sleep diary, but not to the number of relaxation exercises conducted. Although the study focussed on CBT-I, we expect that designers of other computerized health interventions benefit from the tested opportunity and self-empowerment principles for reminders to improve adherence, as well

'Proximal' and 'distal' in language and cognition: Evidence from deictic demonstratives in Dutch

In this paper we examine the differences in use between distal and proximal demonstrative terms (e.g., singular '�this�' and '�that�', and plural '�these�' and '�those�' in English). The proximal–distal distinction appears to be made in all languages and therefore promises to be an important window on the cognitive mechanisms underlying language production and comprehension. We address the problem of accounting for the distinction through a corpus-based quantitative study of the deictic use of demonstratives in Dutch. Our study suggests that the distal–proximal distinction corresponds with use of the proximal for intensive/strong indicating (i.e., directing of attention) and the distal for neutral indicating. We compare our findings with empirical findings on the use of English demonstratives and argue that, despite some apparent differences, Dutch and English demonstratives behave roughly similarly though not identically. Finally, we put our findings into context by pulling together evidence from a number of converging sources on the relationship between indicating and describing as alternative modes of reference in the use of distal and proximal demonstratives. This will also lead us to a new understanding of the folk-view on distals and proximals as distinguishing between nearby and faraway objects

Mental state recognition and communicative effects

Speech acts in natural language dialogues can be regarded as intentional acts performed by a dialogue participant to influence the relevant aspects of the mental state of a recipient. In this paper, a framework is discussed for deriving the beliefs and intentions of a speaker from a certain speech act. To this end, the notion of a speech act is replaced by the formal notion of a communicative act. A communicative act is expressed in terms of prosodic and textual features of the utterance and connected by means of default rules of the conditions that must be fulfilled by a speaker in order to perform the act felicitously. To indicate preferences among sets of conditions, hierarchic default rules were introduced. The conditions are expressed in terms of beliefs and intentions of the speaker and the hearer and may be compared with Searle's felicity conditions on speech acts. It is argued, though, that some of the conditions can be derived from a formalization of general principles of rational behaviour in dialogues. Communicative effects were computed on the basis of the consequences of the observed communicative act and the actual circumstances of the act

Context and Form: Declarative or Interrogative, that is the Question

Questions in spoken dialogues are often uttered in a declarative form. In more than 50% the question function of these utterances cannot be recognized without contextual features. Therefore, a speaker must, at the risk of misunderstanding, have special reasons for using a declarative form instead of an interrogative one. Two experiments were carried out to determine the contextual features that contribute to the use of a declarative question. Dialogues were presented on paper in both experiments. In the first experiment, subjects had to indicate whether a question in the dialogue was originally used in a declarative or an interrogative form; in the second, the subjects had to estimate the speaker's certainty about the correctness of the propositional content of the questions in the first experiment. The experimental results indicate that declaratives are often used for questioning if the speaker wants to verify information already provided in the dialogue and that the use of declarativ..

Mental State Recognition and Communicative Effects

Speech acts in natural language dialogues can be regarded as intentional acts performed by a dialogue participant to influence the relevant aspects of the mental state of a recipient. In this paper, a framework is discussed for deriving the beliefs and intentions of a speaker from a certain speech act. To this end, the notion of a speech act is replaced by the formal notion of a communicative act. A communicative act is expressed in terms of prosodic and textual features of the utterance and connected by means of default rules to the conditions that must be fulfilled by a speaker in order to perform the act felicitously. To indicate preferences among sets of conditions, hierarchic default rules were introduced. The conditions are expressed in terms of beliefs and intentions of the speaker and the hearer and may be compared with Searle's felicity conditions on speech acts. It is argued, though, that some of the conditions can be derived from a formalization of general principles of rati..

Declarative questions in discourse

Questions in spoken dialogues are often uttered in a declarative form. Since more than 50% of these questions cannot be recognized as such without contextual features, a speaker must, at the risk of misunderstanding, have special reasons for using a declarative form instead of an interrogative one. Two experiments were carried out to determine the contextual features that contribute to the use of a declarative question. Dialogues were presented on paper in both experiments. In the first experiment, subjects had to indicate whether a question in the dialogue was originally used in a declarative or an interrogative form; in the second, the subjects had to estimate the speaker's certainty about the correctness of the propositional content of the questions in the first experiment. The experimental results indicate that declaratives are often used for questioning if the speaker wants to verify information already provided in the dialogue and that the use of declaratives significantly correlates with the speaker's degree of certainty about the propositional content of the question. Moreover, from the experimental results it is hypothesized that abrupt changes of topic may decrease the use of declaratives