To combat the global shortage of mental health services, new solutions - such as computerized therapy options - have to be found. While research in this field has been ongoing for several decades and approaches such as chatbot-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have already shown to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression for younger adults, voice assistant-based (VA-based) approaches have thus far not been investigated deeply. However, especially for elderly people with depression VA-based systems could yield benefits - such as the avoidance of physical accessibility issues. Therefore, we propose the design of a VA-based system capable of delivering selected methods from CBT to elderly users with depression in order to investigate its usability. To assess the usability of the conceptualized system in comparison to a chatbot-based approach we conducted a randomized controlled A/B testing experiment with 14 participants. Results indicate a good usability and acceptance of the designed system and a preference for the delivery of CBT-methods via voice assistant rather than via chatbot, especially among elderly participants.
With a rising number of students with depression, new low-threshold solutions have to be found to strengthen the resilience against and help those affected by mental disorders. One approach lies in the usage of chatbots (CBs) to provide tools based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that can be used independently in order to reduce symptoms of depression. To ensure the adherence to such systems, a good usability and acceptance is important. Conversational agents (CAs) that provide CBT-based content should further be sensitive to the users emotional state, as empathy is one central aspect of therapy. While promising research has been going on in the field of CB-based empathy-driven CBT, voice assistant-based (VA-based) solutions have thus far not been investigated deeply. Therefore, we propose a VA-based, empathy-driven system, capable of delivering selected methods from CBT to students with depression.To assess the effects of empathy-driven dialog management on perceived usability and acceptance, we conducted a single blind randomized controlled A/B testing experiment with 10 participants. While the application of empathetical dialog management shows no benefits to the usability and acceptance, results overall indicate a good usability and acceptance of the system in the target group.
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