Student psychologists help the depressed

Liisa Luuk and Lisa Backlund are in the last term of their Psychology programme. During the spring they will be doing a graduation project in which they will evaluate the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy on depression, where the treatment is a combination of online treatment and actual face-to-face meetings. Their study is a part of a larger European research project in which the results from eight European countries are brought together.

Liisa Luuk och Lisa Backlund There is good support in research for both traditional face-to-face CBT and for treatment delivered online, Ms Backlund explains. What is new, and has not been researched as much, is that in this study there are four face-to-face meetings with the therapist in addition to the online treatment. Many patients request meeting their therapist, and it can result in more people completing their therapy.

“We will be taking part in the entire project,” Ms Luuk says. “We have received general guidelines from the other EU countries taking part, but we have been able to design the online treatment and the form of the treatment meetings. And we are also part of the recruitment process, conducting interviews with the participants prior to treatment. Then we follow up the results afterward, and we will also take part as therapists.”

Meeting and treating patients is not new for them.

“We see patients for three terms during our course at the university clinic ,” Ms Backlund explains. “During that time we are given basic psychotherapy training. And last term we went out for twelve weeks on professional placement, working with patients.”

In Sweden the studies will be carried out in Linköping and Stockholm. There will be places for 150 people who feel depressed to receive treatment and take part in the study, which is free. The criteria for taking part include being over 18 and having access to a telephone and a smart-phone. The treatment itself will start in February and run over ten weeks. Those interested in taking part may indicate their interest now.

“It’s important for us to have a large number of participants to make the results as reliable as possible and so that they can be compared with the various other EU countries,” Ms Luuk says. “It’s great being part of a real research project that is so big, it’s wonderful. Gaining experience of seeing how the research is done when these big names in the field are the ones doing it.”

“If we were to work as psychologists in primary care in the future, it is very possible that we would be the ones actually putting this treatment into practice,” Ms Luuk says.

Ms Backlund agrees with her.

“Yes, there's a good chance that treatment will go in this direction – more online treatment – so it’s an excellent experience for us.”

The treatment includes four face-to-face meetings with the therapist; in between, the treatment is internet-based. The participants will read some texts that talk about depression and how it is dealt with in CBT. Some of it deals with changing what you do – how to do things differently in order to deal with your depression – and part of it deals with how to manage your thinking. These are two key parts of CBT. Then there are small tasks. They might be answering questions or doing some exercises. Then you apply what you’ve read to your daily life.

Later, the treatment will be evaluated.

“We will compare it with a control group,” Ms Backlund says. “We have various questionnaires that the participants will fill in before and after the study, where they will assess how they feel. We will compare the severity of the depression symptoms before and after the treatment. We will also have a control group, that does not take part, to compare with. They will receive online treatment after the study has been completed. So everyone who takes part in the study will receive treatment.”

Professor Gerhard Andersson of the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning at Linköping University is behind the project. Naira Topooco is a PhD student in Clinical Psychology, and a part of Professor Andersson’s research team. She is a project manager in the research study and Ms Luuk’s and Ms Backlund’s immediate supervisor. DAY treatment was developed by researchers and psychologists from Linköping University and is based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

Source: The DAY-studie (article in Swedish)

Feelings of awe and joy can bolster your mental and physical health.

              POSITIVE EMOTIONS CAN STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
                                         Image Credit: Mens Health

The wonders of the world can be just as good for your health as they are for your enjoyment, suggests a UC Berkley study.

Researchers have linked positive emotions—awe, contentment, spirituality—with lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, proteins that signal your immune system to work harder and bolster good health.

In two separate experiments, more than 200 young adults were asked to log the extent to which they experienced amusement, awe, compassion, joy, love, and pride on a given day. Samples of gum and cheek tissue taken that same day showed that those who experienced more of these positive emotions had the lowest levels of the cytokine Interleukin 6, a marker of inflammation that can cause autoimmune disease and depression.

“That awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines suggests that the things we do to experience these emotions—a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art—has a direct influence upon health and life expectancy,” says UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner, a co-author of the study.

An added emphasis on spirituality and mindfulness may just be enough to get you through this winter happy and healthy. 

Source: Mensfitness

Virtual reality speeds up rehabilitation: Integrating force feedback into therapies

A child is receiving virtual door opening training under the guidance of a therapist. Credit: Copyright The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has successfully developed a novel training programme using haptic technology for impaired hands that cannot function normally. This programme is unique as it provides force feedback, which creates a true sense of weight to the user through the control device.

Our hands are essential to our lives; we need them in all daily tasks including eating, bathing and getting dressed. However, even the simplest tasks are challenging for people with impaired hands due to various conditions such as cerebral palsy, stroke and ageing. Fortunately, they will soon benefit from a new training technology which may greatly improve their conditions.

In response to therapeutic needs, a computerized training programme against impaired hands has been developed at the School of Nursing of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Patients being trained are supposed to exercise their hands through playing a series of well-designed computer games that simulate everyday tasks, such as opening a locked door with a key or pouring tea into a cup. While playing, their hand movements are monitored and recorded by a haptic device, which is connected to the control unit held by the patient at one end, and a computer at the other. The haptic device then feeds the data into the computer, resulting in the instant reflection of the patient's actions in the animation on screen.

In addition, the haptic technology which the programme employs is more true-to-life than similar programmes, as feedback is provided through the force created by the control unit to players. For example, they can literally feel the weight of a simulated bottle diminishing as the water is being poured out. Such kind of precision will greatly enhance training effectiveness and improve the patient's coordination.

Game-based therapies are highly motivating. Firstly, playing 3D games in colourful animation is more interesting than monotonous physical exercises. Secondly, a reward system incorporated in the programme is sure to fuel a sense of competition and accomplishment. "Our games are designed to be engaging. When players make successful attempts, they get bonus points. And as they win, they move on to the next level, where more attractive rewards are waiting," said Dr Kup-sze Choi, the leader of the research team. It is satisfying for players to work their way up and keep going with the therapy, thereby improving their hand functions.

Compared to physical training, computer simulated training is a safer option when sharp or breakable objects are involved, making practices on preparing simple meals with a knife possible. It is also less likely to be interrupted by undesired circumstances. Dr Choi explained, "For instance, the hands of cerebral palsy sufferers are usually stiff, weak and prone to uncontrolled movements. If they practise pouring real tea in repeated sessions, they may make spills all over the place and end up soaking wet, requiring the healthcare workers to clean up the mess. That is not a good thing for both the trainee and the trainer." With computer simulation, there will be no such interruptions.

To cater to different degrees of disability, the programme has a built-in difficulty mode with which the level of difficulty can be adjusted with the touch of a button. Therapists can also monitor their patients' progress easily, as the system keeps track of their movements and performance.

The effectiveness of this training programme was preliminarily confirmed, as a similar tool aimed to improve hand-writing was tested on the children at the Hong Kong Red Cross Princess Alexandra School. The results have shown a marked improvement in the time they needed to complete the task after two weeks of training. More tests and trials are on the way, and the team expect that a longer period of computer-assisted training will yield greater benefits. The training system has already won a Silver Medal at the 42nd International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva in Switzerland.

According to Dr Choi, computer simulated training using haptic technology will widen the access to rehabilitation and help more patients with impaired hands . In the future, the team will work on combining this computer-aided rehabilitation programme with traditional therapy in order to optimize the training system and benefit more patients. The prototype of the haptic platform customized for self-care training Copyright : The Hong Kong Polytechnic University The haptic platform technology developed by Dr Kup-sze Choi and his team has won a Silver Medal at the 42nd International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. 

Copyright : The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Source: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Video game teaches kids how to code

A screen shot for the video game. Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - San Diego

Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have successfully funded on Kickstarter a new and improved version of CodeSpells, a first-person player game they developed that teaches players how to code.

The game's previous iteration, developed by UC San Diego computer science Ph.D. students Sarah Esper and Stephen Foster, has been in use in dozens of schools throughout the world for more than a year. The researchers have been using the game as a platform to learn about the best ways to teach children how to code. They have presented their findings at a wide range of academic conferences, including the upcoming Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research Nov. 20 to 23 in Koli, Finland.

In this latest paper, "CodeSpells: Bridging Educational Language Features with Industry-Standard Languages," the researchers demonstrate that after playing CodeSpells for either four hours over four weeks or 10 hours over seven days, children ages 8 to 12 were able to write code by hand in Java.

"It is the goal of CodeSpells to provide a rich experience of computer science education to students who may not have access to an educator," Esper said.

Researchers now want to make the game more attractive and more fun to play. But they need funds to improve the game's graphics and coding interface. Enter Kickstarter, where the project has already met and exceeded its $50,000 fundraising goal.

"We want the game to be educational, but our biggest goal is to make sure it's fun," Foster said.

He and Esper have co-founded ThoughtSTEM, along with UC San Diego biochemistry Ph.D. 

student Lindsey Handley, to teach children ages 8 to 18 how to code, via onsite classes and video games, including CodeSpells and Minecraft.

In its previous iteration, CodeSpells sent players on quests, which helped them master spells, written in Java. This new version is more open-ended much like Minecraft -- a so-called sandbox game. The players are wizards that can modify the world around them at will. They can build mountains and valleys, levitate objects and start fires. They do so by using Blocky, a visual programming language created by Google, or Javascript.

The hope is that players will come up with their own quests. Researchers also hope that as players tinker with the game, they'll come up with their own exciting spells and share those. The goal is to create a vibrant online community, much like the one that has developed around Minecraft.

The game will feature several modes out of the box, but players will be able to create their own modes too. They'll have the tools to create everything from modes to survive in the wilderness to modes to balance an eco-system. They can even create multi-player magic-based sports to play with their friends.

The game will feature four elements: earth, fire, water and air, which the players can manipulate via spells. So far, computer scientists have completed an early version of gameplay for earth magic. The Kickstarter will fund the development of magic for fire, air and water, with an alpha version to be released on Christmas Day 2014, a beta version in June 2015, and the final copy of the game's creative mode to be released September 2015.

If the Kickstarter exceeds its $50,000 goal, the game's multiplayer functions will be enhanced. In addition, the game will add a fifth element, life, which would give wizards control over animals and plants within the game. That feature would be released in summer 2016. By early 2017, players would be able to create their own species and custom characters within the game.

Rewards for the Kickstarter range from a digital copy of CodeSpells for a $10 donation to access to district-wide licenses for CodeSpells in alpha and beta versions and computational thinking courses to a teacher at each school within a school district for a $5,000 donation.

Source: University of California - San Diego

A Facebook application knows if you are having a bad day and tells your teacher

Spanish scientists create algorithms to measure sentiment on social networks Computer languages and systems researchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid have developed an application called SentBuk, which is capable of deducing the emotional states of Facebook users by analysing their messages using algorithms. The authors believe that this tool could be useful to online educators, as it would furnish them with similar information to that obtained by in-person teachers when they look at their students’ faces.

Computer languages and systems researchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid have developed an application called SentBuk, which is capable of deducing the emotional states of Facebook users by analysing their messages using algorithms. The authors believe that this tool could be useful to online educators, as it would furnish them with similar information to that obtained by in-person teachers when they look at their students' faces.

Information from social networks is becoming a goldmine for marketing and advertising companies. Now, a team of computer languages and systems researchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) has also spotted great potential for analysing the emotions transmitted by users in the most popular of these networks: Facebook.

As Álvaro Ortigosa, Director of the UAM's National Centre of Excellence in Cybersecurity, explains, he and his team have developed an application called SentBuk, which is capable of automatically deducing the emotional states of Facebook users by analysing their messages on the social network using algorithms. The results of the study have been published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

"SentBuk is an application external to Facebook which, with the user's permission, analyses the messages he/she publishes and calculates his/her emotional state. The tool is based on two algorithms: the first calculates the emotional load of each message and classifies it as positive, negative or neutral. The second deduces emotional state by comparing it with the emotional load of recent messages."

The tool -Ortigosa continues- "utilises a natural language analysis technique to recognise significant words with emotional load. It also uses an automatic, machine-learning-type classification system. Based on a large bank of sentences classified by humans, the application has been trained to learn to reproduce human judgment. The emotional load assigned to each sentence arises from a combination of both calculations."

Adaptive e-learning

The UAM scientists believe that this application could be used in adaptive online education, i.e. education that attempts to suggest tasks to the student at the most appropriate time.

"The information obtained via SentBuk, with the approval of the user," Ortigosa insists, "will be able to be used to avoid recommending especially complex pieces of work at times when it detects that the student is in a negative state of mind or one that is less positive than usual."

In these situations, by contrast, "activities with less pedagogical content but designed to motivate students could be assigned."

In his opinion, analysing the general trend of a group of students during internet courses "may afford the teacher similar feedback to that obtained by looking at students' faces in an in-person class -- information it is not normally possible to get online."

Field tests

Ortigosa and the study's co-authors have performed tests with SentBuk and have included the information on students' emotional states in an e-learning system.

According to the expert, in its most basic form, the application alerts professors when it detects that a significant number of students are in a negative frame of mind. "These messages are analysed in context. Although there may be many reasons for the emotional state, the hypothesis is that these negative emotions should be uniformly distributed across time."

On the other hand, he adds, the students of an online course have little to no relation to each other, beyond being classmates in that particular course. For this reason, "if at any given moment a negative emotional peak is detected in a representative sample of the students, it is highly probable that such emotional variation is due to some situation relating to the course, and thus the tool will send a warning message to the teacher."

Other applications

Álvaro Ortigosa says that it is a non-intrusive technique that "enables teachers to have an emotional state thermometer for Facebook users." Once all the necessary permissions for the application have been given, it deduces their emotional state by observing the behaviour in their interaction -- presumably normal and spontaneous -- with the social network.

This information could be used in several contexts. "For example, to complement remote monitoring of those who are ill or to measure user satisfaction. In this area, companies could use the information to alter products or services offered to potential consumers.

The UAM team's research is part of a broader project seeking to infer general characteristics, such as personality and emotional load, of those who use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Source: Plataforma SINC