BackgroundBeing socially connected is related to well-being, and one way of avoiding social isolation is to deepen existing relationships. Even though existing relationships can be reinforced by regular and meaningful communication, state-of-the-art communication technologies alone do not increase the quality of social connections. Thus, there is a need for the involvement of a trained human facilitator in a network of older adults, preferably for a short period, to promote the deepening of their relationships.ObjectiveThis study aimed to evaluate the hypothesis that a human-facilitated, media-sharing social networking system can improve social connection in a small group of older people, who are more vulnerable to social isolation than most, and deepen their relationships over a period of a few weeks.MethodsWe conducted the design and evaluation of Media Parcels, a novel human-facilitated social networking system. Media Parcels is based on the metaphor of a facilitator collecting and delivering parcels in the physical mail. Extending the metaphor, the system supports a facilitator in designing time-based dialogue requesting parcels from participants that bring out their memories and feelings, in collecting the parcels, wrapping them in annotations that communicate the corresponding requests, and delivering the wrapped parcel to a target person. Qualitative evaluation was carried out in two trials with a group of three people each, one with family members (children and father; aged 55, 56, and 82 years old) and the other with a group of friends (aged 72, 72, and 74 years old), over two weeks. In each trial, data were collected in three interviews (pre-, mid-, and posttrial) and via system logging.ResultsCollected data indicate positive social effects for deepening and developing relationships. The parcel metaphor was easily understood and the computational system was readily adopted. Preferences with regard to media production or consumption varied among participants. In the family group, children preferred receiving media parcels (because of their sentimental value) to producing them, whereas the father enjoyed both. In the friendship group, preferences varied: one friend enjoyed both producing and receiving, while the other two preferred one over the other. In general, participants reported a preference for the production of items of a certain type depending on the associated content. Apart from having a strong engagement with the system, participants reported feeling closer to each other than usual.ConclusionsFor both groups, Media Parcels was effective in promoting media sharing and social connections, resulting in the deepening of existing relationships. Its design informs researchers who are attempting to promote social connection in older adults.

Estudos de Psicologia I Campinas I 27(3) I 375-382 I julho -setembro 2010

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Choices based on exclusion have been investigated in different species because of its emergent nature, leading to evidence of rudimentary symbolic behavior in non-verbal organisms. Simple discrimination procedures provide a simple method to investigate exclusion performance, in which each trial consists of the simultaneous presentation of two stimuli, one with a positive function (S+) and one with a negative function (S-). In exclusion probe trials, an undefined stimulus (UnS) is presented with a familiar S -, and choices based on exclusion may lead to choosing the UnS, excluding the previously known S -. Novelty control trials (S + /UnS) are also conducted to assess the possible preference for the UnS. In this case, if performance is not controlled by novelty, then the subjects must choose the S + and not the UnS. The present study investigated exclusion performance in visual simple simultaneous discrimination tasks in eight dogs. The results indicated that seven of eight dogs showed evidence of exclusion performance (p < .05). These findings corroborate the literature that shows that dogs are capable of responding by exclusion, suggesting that potentially symbolic behavior may rely on basic behavioral learning and conditioning principles.

Background Health professionals initiating mobile health (mHealth) interventions may choose to adapt apps designed for other activities (eg, peer-to-peer communication) or to employ purpose-built apps specialized in the required intervention, or to exploit apps based on methods such as the experience sampling method (ESM). An alternative approach for professionals would be to create their own apps. While ESM-based methods offer important guidance, current systems do not expose their design at a level that promotes replicating, specializing, or extending their contributions. Thus, a twofold solution is required: a method that directs specialists in planning intervention programs themselves, and a model that guides specialists in adopting existing solutions and advises software developers on building new ones. Objective The main objectives of this study are to design the Experience Sampling and Programmed Intervention Method (ESPIM), formulated toward supporting specialists in deploying mHealth interventions, and the ESPIM model, which guides health specialists in adopting existing solutions and advises software developers on how to build new ones. Another goal is to conceive and implement a software platform allowing specialists to be users who actually plan, create, and deploy interventions (ESPIM system). Methods We conducted the design and evaluation of the ESPIM method and model alongside a software system comprising integrated web and mobile apps. A participatory design approach with stakeholders included early software prototype, predesign interviews with 12 health specialists, iterative design sustained by the software as an instance of the method’s conceptual model, support to 8 real case studies, and postdesign interviews. Results The ESPIM comprises (1) a list of requirements for mHealth experience sampling and intervention-based methods and systems, (2) a 4-dimension planning framework, (3) a 7-step-based process, and (4) an ontology-based conceptual model. The ESPIM system encompasses web and mobile apps. Eight long-term case studies, involving professionals in psychology, gerontology, computer science, speech therapy, and occupational therapy, show that the method allowed specialists to be actual users who plan, create, and deploy interventions via the associated system. Specialists’ target users were parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, older persons, graduate and undergraduate students, children (age 8-12), and caregivers of older persons. The specialists reported being able to create and conduct their own studies without modifying their original design. A qualitative evaluation of the ontology-based conceptual model showed its compliance to the functional requirements elicited. Conclusions The ESPIM method succeeds in supporting specialists in planning, authoring, and deploying mobile-based intervention programs when employed via a software system designed and implemented according to its conceptual model. The ESPIM ontology–based conceptual model exposes the design of systems involving active or passive sampling interventions. Such exposure supports the evaluation, implementation, adaptation, or extension of new or existing systems.

This study evaluated an intervention package combining simple and conditional discrimination training and specific reinforcement for each stimulus class in teaching reading of simple words to individuals with intellectual disabilities. In conditional discrimination training, participants matched printed words and pictures to the recorded sounds made by the pictured objects and animals. Fourteen children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities were assigned to an experimental and a control group. The two groups' performance did not differ in the pretest. The experimental group demonstrated equivalence class formation and read the words that participated in the equivalence classes, whereas the control group did not.

No abstract

In this paper we present the ESPIM system, a set of tools that enables the authoring of intervention programs with focus on health and education. Created programs are played in a mobile app that generates screens on demand, according to their definition provided by JSON fi les. Using state-of-art technology we aim to provide a platform that can be used by professionals of health and education with no programming skills. To achieve that the system presents an intuitive authoring interface, built with requirements obtained with experts in diff erent areas and with continuous feedback from evaluations, and a friendly mobile app, which presents elementsthat users are familiar and a good aesthetic design to motivate them. The system is being successfully used by professionals in health-related areas and shows many advantages in comparison tosimilar platforms.