echoes from the past- how technology mediated reflection improves well-being

Echoes From the Past: How Technology Mediated Reflection Improves Well-Being + CHI 2013 - Ellen Isaacs, Artie Konrad, Alan Walendowski et al.

/ 맹욱재x 2014 already fall

PhenomenonPeople(ppl) document more of their lives online.+ recent tech encourage ppl to reflect old posts.

=> technology-mediated reflection(TMR)

unmediated reflection benefits psychological well-being

Q. Wether & How TMR affects well-being

Methodbuilt Echo, smartphone application

for recording(RC) everyday experience reflecting(RF) on them later.

deploy with 44 users, 12,000 RC & RF

FindingsTMR improves well-being by 4 psychological metrics.

By contents analysys, discovered 2 mechanism for why.

reporting very long-term effect

Intro

make it possible to revisit veridical accounts of pasts

Intro (Cont.)

few systematic studies on digital reflection.

reflecting has benefits for psychological well-being even on negative experience.due to adaptive biases.

exposure to digital records of negative experience interfere with adaptive unmediated reflection? positive feedback?

RQ

1) how TMR differ from simple recording without reflection?

2) how {much} well-being(WB) benefits of using TMR

3) what is the mechanism by which TMR affects WB

Related Work

Tech to support health

Recording Systems

Reminiscense Systems

Reflection on

Positives

Reflection on

Negatives

UnmediatedHumanmemory

& reflection

Echo

Pilotrecruting:10 participants (5 women + 5 men) age :18-24period : 4 weeksdirection : brief tutorial asking them to record several events per day

reflect when they wantreflect notifications post from 1 day, week, month agospontaneously reflect on prior posts at any time

Pilot (Cont.)To ensure participant’s internal consistency of happiness rating, they created personalized reference scale.

after 28days, conducted semi-structured interview

falied college application

had meeting whale watching in Hawaii

Result of PilotOn avg, 64 posts / person (39 recording + 25 reflection)avg. emotional rating : 5.64 > 5initial post 5.57, reflection 5.82participant highly postive about TMRmany types of events from mudane(getting coffee) to the profound(relationship/life issues) in both social & private setting.Two modes of Usage : Journaling(6) & Analysis(4)

Result of Pilot (Cont.)Journaling : documenting event + expressing feelings

1) benefits of photojournal2) deepening the positive experience3) stop obessing with negative experience

Result of Pilot (Cont.)Analysis : gaining insight from initial and changing reaction

1) supporting problem solvinganalyzing/reframing negative situations to develop methodputting them into better context

2) modifying emotional habits by gaining insight into behavioral patterns

“it made me take my time. Calm down with my reponses” , “pocket therapist”

3) gaining insight how their reaction chaged over time.fading effect, gaining control

Limit of Pilot1) small scale2) not systematical measurement3) no isolation of TMR mechanism

->1) over 302) 4 standardized well-being scales3) implement 2 version, with/without reflection

Main Exp.recruting:33 participants via personal connections, Craigslist, Facebook, Quantified Self forums (17 f + 16 m) age :20-60 (M = 28.7, SD = 9.9)period : 4 weeksdirection : brief tutorial asking them to record 3 events per day

reflect 3 earlier posts when promptedreflect notifications post from 1 day, week, month agospontaneously reflect on prior posts at any time

Main Exp.randomly assigned participant (Recorder[RC]. Reflector[RF])asking permision for sharing contents after browising & deleting what they want.only 4 gave researcher access

asking complete 4 well-being scales before & after a monthSubjective Hapiness Scale(SHS)Satisfaction with Life Scale(SWLS)Psychological General Well-Being Index(PGWBI)Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale(MASS)

Result of Main Exp.On avg, 90 posts / person, 3.2 posts / day

RC RF significant

posts / day 2.5 4.3(2.4 inital + 1.9 reflection)

length 22.9 13.6(13.6 inital + 10.9 reflection)

not

avg. emotional rating

5.9 > 5 not

LIWC positive : 5.3%, negative : 2.7% > 2.6%(Pennebaker’s personal writing corpus)

Result of Main Exp. (Cont.)effects of TMR on well-beingMANOVA with one between subject factor Condition(RC VS RF)one within-subject facotr Time (pre VS post) dependent varialbe = 4 WB scales

Using Pillai’s trace the main effect for time was significant, V=.31, F(4,28)=3.09 p=.03 interaction effect of time by condition was not significant8 months later, 6 participants continued to use Echo.

Why RC & RF has no significant difference?- due to different emotional process from 2 content analysis, 1) overall post 2)words within post

Result of Main Exp. (Cont.)

Reflecters generally gained insight into their behavior when they revisited prior posts. After reflecting they were happier and gained perspective on events they had initially judged negatively

Recorders, however, gained benefits from expressing their emotions. This participant vents and self-coaches

Result of Main Exp. (Cont.)Difference in emotional depthfrom systematical analysis, hand-coded 996 randomly selected posts (40% of each participant) 462 from RC, 534 from RF(317 initial, 217 reflection)

Result of Main Exp. (Cont.)

Result for initial posts of RF & RCone person coded the entire sample while a second coded 20% of posts, achieving 78% agreement.

RF conveyed deeper emotions in reflections. while the combined number of cursory emotions (Reports and Mention categories) decreased from initial posts to reflections, explicit discussion of emotions (Express and Analyze categories) increased

Result of Main Exp. (Cont.)Linguistic Difference between RC & RFused LIWC to quantitatively compare the linguistic propertiesconfirmed different emotional qualityRF tended more positive about emotions.(t(27)=3.25, p=.003, RC: M=4.6, SD=1.44), RF: M=7.17, SD=2.79)‘ok’, ‘yes’, ‘agree’ more assent words. (t(14.55)=4.93, p<.001 using Levene’s correction for heterogeneity of variance.)

Why RF express more positive emotion?RF did less analysis in innitial, later drew positive lessons from both positive & negative events. RC less able to take a perspetive on the situation, see possible benefits from upsetting current experience

Result of Main Exp. (Cont.)RFs Improved by Talking About Actions and Drawing Lessons for Future Behavior

RCs Improved Well-being by Discussing Relationships.

Summary of Final Interview RC

solidifying emotions and putting it in their presepectives

appreciating trivial activityexpressing negative feeling as if to ‘digital confidant’

RFbenefited from seeing longer-term patterns in their behavior

drawing lessons from the outcome of earlier events

Long Term Effects1st author had used Echo for 4 years since 2008/11

5,324 recordings, 4,039 reflections, avg. 3.8 posts / day (ranging 1~12)

reflected 2.9 posts / day at random 1 day, week, year, 2,3 yrs ago.

Some were never reflected, others up to 7 times. agv. 0.8 reflection / post

Long Term EffectsReflection Improves Event Perceptionfading affect bias

negative rating(1,2,3) -> mean > positive rating(7,8,9) -> mean (t(60.13)=6.88, p<.001, d=1.15)

very negative(1,2) improved > moderately negative (3,4) improved (t(213)=3.61, p<.001, d=.91)extreamly positive(8,9) faded more than moderately positive(6,7) (t(2086)=10.26, p<.001, d=.84)

Long Term EffectsLonger-term Behavior change Based Around Perceiving Patterns in Emotional Habits

started using to reduce anxiety about eventsbetter than she anticipated.Changing occured from analyzing repeated reflections.

Mental Time Travel Allows Real-time Nostalgiaprofound experience of living life both in the moments and retrospectively

The Downside : Desire to Repress the Negativehard to forget unpleasant events

ConclusionEcho produced measurable improvements of well-being only in a month.

long-termly led adaptive changes

RC savor positive emotions and analyzing negative emotionsRF generalize positive experience, draw lessons from negatives

Not disrupting adaptive memory biasesPotential for providing novel physical health benefits

Design ImplicationIntervention technique to increase psychological health

Adaptive Echo - if a sequence of negative events then selecting positive earlier ones.

emotional writing approach - repeatedly reflect upsetting events up to having postive perspective.

Repression feature - rating different types of emotions

Discussion Point

1. Getting positive perspective from past VS Locking in the glory of the past

2. Can we make self-identity or find the aptitude from the past? or We have to experience the domain for determining whether suitable or not