2024
Antle, Alissa N., McLaren, Elgin-Skye
Are mobile neurofeedback games a feasible way to improve self-regulation of attention for young marginalized children? Journal Article
In: International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, vol. 42, pp. 100690, 2024.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: mindfull
@article{ANTLE2024100690,
title = {Are mobile neurofeedback games a feasible way to improve self-regulation of attention for young marginalized children?},
author = {Alissa N. Antle and Elgin-Skye McLaren},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221286892400059X},
doi = {doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100690},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-09-13},
urldate = {2024-09-13},
journal = {International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction},
volume = {42},
pages = {100690},
abstract = {Interactive technology-mediated behavioral interventions are increasingly being studied with children at risk for attentional challenges. Few technology-mediated interventions have been designed for, or studied in the field with, marginalized children, who are at an elevated risk for attentional challenges. We adapted three existing neurofeedback games to create a proof-of-concept intervention to address this research gap. To investigate preliminary feasibility and efficacy we conducted a controlled field experiment with 28 children (aged 5 to 8, 22 male) from a disadvantaged community. Findings showed that with support all children were able to complete the intervention, and most were able to transfer newly attained attention regulation skills into everyday situations and maintain those skills over time. Our work serves as a proof-of-concept for this type of technology-mediated mental health intervention research, provides an exemplar of digital health research with hard-to-reach populations, and provides preliminary evidence that this research space warrants future attention.
},
keywords = {mindfull},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Interactive technology-mediated behavioral interventions are increasingly being studied with children at risk for attentional challenges. Few technology-mediated interventions have been designed for, or studied in the field with, marginalized children, who are at an elevated risk for attentional challenges. We adapted three existing neurofeedback games to create a proof-of-concept intervention to address this research gap. To investigate preliminary feasibility and efficacy we conducted a controlled field experiment with 28 children (aged 5 to 8, 22 male) from a disadvantaged community. Findings showed that with support all children were able to complete the intervention, and most were able to transfer newly attained attention regulation skills into everyday situations and maintain those skills over time. Our work serves as a proof-of-concept for this type of technology-mediated mental health intervention research, provides an exemplar of digital health research with hard-to-reach populations, and provides preliminary evidence that this research space warrants future attention.
2020
Jones, Brennan, Tang, Anthony, Neustaedter, Carman, Antle, Alissa N., McLaren, Elgin-Skye
Designing Technology for Shared Communication and Awareness in Wilderness Search and Rescue Book Chapter
In: McCrickard, D. Scott; Jones, Michael; Stelter, Timothy L. (Ed.): HCI Outdoors: Theory, Design, Methods and Applications, pp. 175–194, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2020, ISBN: 978-3-030-45289-6.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags:
@inbook{Jones2020,
title = {Designing Technology for Shared Communication and Awareness in Wilderness Search and Rescue},
author = {Brennan Jones and Anthony Tang and Carman Neustaedter and Alissa N. Antle and Elgin-Skye McLaren},
editor = {D. Scott McCrickard and Michael Jones and Timothy L. Stelter},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45289-6_9},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-45289-6_9},
isbn = {978-3-030-45289-6},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {HCI Outdoors: Theory, Design, Methods and Applications},
pages = {175--194},
publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
address = {Cham},
abstract = {Wilderness search and rescue (WSAR) is a carefully planned and organized team operation, requiring collaboration and information sharing between many volunteers who are spread out across various locations in the outdoors. Workers play a variety of roles, both on the ground and at a command post, and they need information and awareness specific to those roles. In our work, we are interested in understanding how this information is gathered and passed around, how it helps WSAR workers achieve their goals, and what challenges they face in sending and receiving information as well as in maintaining proper awareness. We conducted a study where we interviewed WSAR workers and observed a simulated search. Our findings reveal that WSAR workers face challenges in maintaining a shared mental model when radio and network connectivity are sparse. Our insights reveal opportunities for new communication modalities, such as (but not limited to) video communication, augmented reality, drones, and team-collaboration platforms to provide awareness and make communication and coordination easier remotely across various locations, but particularly between the field teams and Command workers. However, such technologies should also be designed to anticipate gaps in radio reception, and provide opportunities for workers to communicate asynchronously and see relevant `offline' information in a context-dependent manner. We present design ideas that pursue some of these opportunities.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inbook}
}
Wilderness search and rescue (WSAR) is a carefully planned and organized team operation, requiring collaboration and information sharing between many volunteers who are spread out across various locations in the outdoors. Workers play a variety of roles, both on the ground and at a command post, and they need information and awareness specific to those roles. In our work, we are interested in understanding how this information is gathered and passed around, how it helps WSAR workers achieve their goals, and what challenges they face in sending and receiving information as well as in maintaining proper awareness. We conducted a study where we interviewed WSAR workers and observed a simulated search. Our findings reveal that WSAR workers face challenges in maintaining a shared mental model when radio and network connectivity are sparse. Our insights reveal opportunities for new communication modalities, such as (but not limited to) video communication, augmented reality, drones, and team-collaboration platforms to provide awareness and make communication and coordination easier remotely across various locations, but particularly between the field teams and Command workers. However, such technologies should also be designed to anticipate gaps in radio reception, and provide opportunities for workers to communicate asynchronously and see relevant `offline' information in a context-dependent manner. We present design ideas that pursue some of these opportunities.
2019
Baishya, Uddipana, Antle, Alissa N., McLaren, Elgin-Skye
Idea Bits: A Tangible Design Tool to Aid Idea Generation for Tangible Manipulation Proceedings Article
In: Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–6, Association for Computing Machinery, Glasgow, Scotland Uk, 2019, ISBN: 9781450359719.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: design tools, Idea generation, manipulation, Tangible interaction design, Tangible User Interfaces
@inproceedings{10.1145/3290607.3312820,
title = {Idea Bits: A Tangible Design Tool to Aid Idea Generation for Tangible Manipulation},
author = {Uddipana Baishya and Alissa N. Antle and Elgin-Skye McLaren},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3312820},
doi = {10.1145/3290607.3312820},
isbn = {9781450359719},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1–6},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {Glasgow, Scotland Uk},
series = {CHI EA '19},
abstract = {Tangible interaction design students often find it difficult to generate ideas for tangible manipulation. They often restrict their explorations to a few familiar possibilities. To our knowledge, there is no design tool that focuses on facilitating the exploration of a variety of manipulation and aiding generation of ideas for manipulation. To address this gap, we designed Idea Bits, a tangible design tool consisting of interactive physical artifacts that enable users to experience a set of manipulations. These artifacts are coupled with digital examples of tangible systems and technical implementation guidance to help users understand how to implement the manipulations. Our work contributes knowledge about the generation of ideas for manipulation and will be useful to tangible interaction design students, instructors, practitioners, and researchers.},
keywords = {design tools, Idea generation, manipulation, Tangible interaction design, Tangible User Interfaces},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Tangible interaction design students often find it difficult to generate ideas for tangible manipulation. They often restrict their explorations to a few familiar possibilities. To our knowledge, there is no design tool that focuses on facilitating the exploration of a variety of manipulation and aiding generation of ideas for manipulation. To address this gap, we designed Idea Bits, a tangible design tool consisting of interactive physical artifacts that enable users to experience a set of manipulations. These artifacts are coupled with digital examples of tangible systems and technical implementation guidance to help users understand how to implement the manipulations. Our work contributes knowledge about the generation of ideas for manipulation and will be useful to tangible interaction design students, instructors, practitioners, and researchers.
Antle, Alissa N., McLaren, Elgin-Skye, Fiedler, Holly, Johnson, Naomi
Evaluating the Impact of a Mobile Neurofeedback App for Young Children at School and Home Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–13, Association for Computing Machinery, Glasgow, Scotland Uk, 2019, ISBN: 9781450359702.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: brain computer interfaces, children, field studies, hci for mental health, mindfull, positive computing, self-regulation
@inproceedings{10.1145/3290605.3300266,
title = {Evaluating the Impact of a Mobile Neurofeedback App for Young Children at School and Home},
author = {Alissa N. Antle and Elgin-Skye McLaren and Holly Fiedler and Naomi Johnson},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300266},
doi = {10.1145/3290605.3300266},
isbn = {9781450359702},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-01-01},
urldate = {2019-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1–13},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {Glasgow, Scotland Uk},
series = {CHI '19},
abstract = {About 18% of children in industrialized countries suffer from anxiety. We designed a mobile neurofeedback app, called Mind-Full, based on existing design guidelines. Our goal was for young children in lower socio-economic status schools to improve their ability to self-regulate anxiety by using Mind-Full. In this paper we report on quantitative outcomes from a sixteen-week field evaluation with 20 young children (aged 5 to 8). Our methodological contribution includes using a control group, validated measures of anxiety and stress, and assessing transfer and maintenance. Results from teacher and parent behavioral surveys indicated gains in children's ability to self-regulate anxiety at school and home; a decrease in anxious behaviors at home; and cortisol tests showed variable improvement in physiological stress levels. We contribute to HCI for mental health with evidence that it is viable to use a mobile app in lower socio-economic status schools to improve children's mental health.},
keywords = {brain computer interfaces, children, field studies, hci for mental health, mindfull, positive computing, self-regulation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
About 18% of children in industrialized countries suffer from anxiety. We designed a mobile neurofeedback app, called Mind-Full, based on existing design guidelines. Our goal was for young children in lower socio-economic status schools to improve their ability to self-regulate anxiety by using Mind-Full. In this paper we report on quantitative outcomes from a sixteen-week field evaluation with 20 young children (aged 5 to 8). Our methodological contribution includes using a control group, validated measures of anxiety and stress, and assessing transfer and maintenance. Results from teacher and parent behavioral surveys indicated gains in children's ability to self-regulate anxiety at school and home; a decrease in anxious behaviors at home; and cortisol tests showed variable improvement in physiological stress levels. We contribute to HCI for mental health with evidence that it is viable to use a mobile app in lower socio-economic status schools to improve children's mental health.
2018
Fan, Min, Baishya, Uddipana, Mclaren, Elgin-Skye, Antle, Alissa N., Sarker, Shubhra, Vincent, Amal
Block Talks: A Tangible and Augmented Reality Toolkit for Children to Learn Sentence Construction Proceedings Article
In: Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–6, Association for Computing Machinery, Montreal QC, Canada, 2018, ISBN: 9781450356213.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: augmented reality, blocks, children, colour cues, sentence construction, Tangible User Interfaces
@inproceedings{10.1145/3170427.3188576,
title = {Block Talks: A Tangible and Augmented Reality Toolkit for Children to Learn Sentence Construction},
author = {Min Fan and Uddipana Baishya and Elgin-Skye Mclaren and Alissa N. Antle and Shubhra Sarker and Amal Vincent},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3170427.3188576},
doi = {10.1145/3170427.3188576},
isbn = {9781450356213},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
booktitle = {Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
pages = {1–6},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {Montreal QC, Canada},
series = {CHI EA '18},
abstract = {The Block Talks toolkit combines the educational potential of tangible computing and augmented reality (AR) technologies to help children learn English sentence construction. Although examples of tangible AR reading systems for children currently exist, few focus specifically on learning sentence structure. Block Talks was developed using ordinary teaching supplies including letter tiles and blocks that can be manipulated to form words and sentences. A companion app allows children to scan these sentences to receive audio and AR feedback. Block Talks takes advantage of colour cues to draw children's attention to sentence structure patterns. This paper outlines existing tangible and AR systems for literacy learning, details the Block Talks design rationale, and concludes with a discussion of the advantages of using a combined tangible and AR approach for teaching sentence construction.},
keywords = {augmented reality, blocks, children, colour cues, sentence construction, Tangible User Interfaces},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The Block Talks toolkit combines the educational potential of tangible computing and augmented reality (AR) technologies to help children learn English sentence construction. Although examples of tangible AR reading systems for children currently exist, few focus specifically on learning sentence structure. Block Talks was developed using ordinary teaching supplies including letter tiles and blocks that can be manipulated to form words and sentences. A companion app allows children to scan these sentences to receive audio and AR feedback. Block Talks takes advantage of colour cues to draw children's attention to sentence structure patterns. This paper outlines existing tangible and AR systems for literacy learning, details the Block Talks design rationale, and concludes with a discussion of the advantages of using a combined tangible and AR approach for teaching sentence construction.
Antle, Alissa N., Chesick, Leslie, Mclaren, Elgin-Skye
Opening up the Design Space of Neurofeedback Brain--Computer Interfaces for Children Journal Article
In: ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact., vol. 24, no. 6, 2018, ISSN: 1073-0516.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Brain-computer interfaces, children, conceptual framework, design, mental health, mindfull, self-regulation, strong concepts
@article{10.1145/3131607,
title = {Opening up the Design Space of Neurofeedback Brain--Computer Interfaces for Children},
author = {Alissa N. Antle and Leslie Chesick and Elgin-Skye Mclaren},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3131607},
doi = {10.1145/3131607},
issn = {1073-0516},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-01-01},
urldate = {2018-01-01},
journal = {ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact.},
volume = {24},
number = {6},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
abstract = {Brain--computer interface applications (BCIs) utilizing neurofeedback (NF) can make invisible brain states visible in real time. Learning to recognize, modify, and regulate brain states is critical to all children's development and can improve learning, and emotional and mental health outcomes. How can we design usable and effective NF BCIs that help children learn and practice brain state self-regulation? Our contribution is a list of challenges for this emerging design space and a conceptual framework that addresses those challenges. The framework is composed of five interrelated strong concepts that we adapted from other design spaces. We derived the concepts reflectively, theoretically, and empirically through a design research process in which we created and evaluated a NF BCI, called Mind-Full, designed to help children living in Nepal who had suffered from complex trauma learn to self-regulate anxiety and attention. We add rigor to our derivation methodology by horizontally and vertically grounding our concepts, that is, relating them to similar concepts in the literature and instantiations in other artifacts. We illustrate the generative power of the concepts and the inter-relationships between them through the description of two new NF BCIs we created using the framework for urban and indigenous children with anxiety and attentional challenges. We then show the versatility of our framework by describing how it inspired and informed the conceptual design of three NF BCIs for different types of self-regulation: selective attention and working memory, pain management, and depression. Last, we discuss the contestability, defensibility, and substantiveness of our conceptual framework in order to ensure rigor in our research design process. Our contribution is a rigorously derived design framework that opens up this new and emerging design space of NF BCI's for children for other researchers and designers.},
keywords = {Brain-computer interfaces, children, conceptual framework, design, mental health, mindfull, self-regulation, strong concepts},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Brain--computer interface applications (BCIs) utilizing neurofeedback (NF) can make invisible brain states visible in real time. Learning to recognize, modify, and regulate brain states is critical to all children's development and can improve learning, and emotional and mental health outcomes. How can we design usable and effective NF BCIs that help children learn and practice brain state self-regulation? Our contribution is a list of challenges for this emerging design space and a conceptual framework that addresses those challenges. The framework is composed of five interrelated strong concepts that we adapted from other design spaces. We derived the concepts reflectively, theoretically, and empirically through a design research process in which we created and evaluated a NF BCI, called Mind-Full, designed to help children living in Nepal who had suffered from complex trauma learn to self-regulate anxiety and attention. We add rigor to our derivation methodology by horizontally and vertically grounding our concepts, that is, relating them to similar concepts in the literature and instantiations in other artifacts. We illustrate the generative power of the concepts and the inter-relationships between them through the description of two new NF BCIs we created using the framework for urban and indigenous children with anxiety and attentional challenges. We then show the versatility of our framework by describing how it inspired and informed the conceptual design of three NF BCIs for different types of self-regulation: selective attention and working memory, pain management, and depression. Last, we discuss the contestability, defensibility, and substantiveness of our conceptual framework in order to ensure rigor in our research design process. Our contribution is a rigorously derived design framework that opens up this new and emerging design space of NF BCI's for children for other researchers and designers.
2017
McLaren, Elgin-Skye, Antle, Alissa N.
Exploring and Evaluating Sound for Helping Children Self-Regulate with a Brain-Computer Application Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 393–398, Association for Computing Machinery, Stanford, California, USA, 2017, ISBN: 9781450349215.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: adhd, brain-computer interfacing, children, design, neurofeedback, sound
@inproceedings{10.1145/3078072.3084299,
title = {Exploring and Evaluating Sound for Helping Children Self-Regulate with a Brain-Computer Application},
author = {Elgin-Skye McLaren and Alissa N. Antle},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3078072.3084299},
doi = {10.1145/3078072.3084299},
isbn = {9781450349215},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children},
pages = {393–398},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {Stanford, California, USA},
series = {IDC '17},
abstract = {Children in North America are more likely to suffer from attentional challenges than any other mental health issue. Studies suggest that neurofeedback treatments may be useful for helping these children learn to self-regulate. Applying neurofeedback treatments in real-world, school settings poses a challenge, however, as these environments are often noisy and filled with distractions. The addition of ambient audio to neurofeedback systems may help reduce these disruptions. Further, research suggests that certain auditory treatments, such as binaural beats and white noise, may improve children's focus and aid memory recall. In the following paper we present the theories supporting this idea as well as a mixed methods framework for evaluating whether sound can help children focus while learning to self-regulate using a neurofeedback system. Specifically, we wish to investigate whether these treatments may help children (1) achieve an attentive state sooner and (2) maintain an attentive state for longer, when compared to the same system without sound.},
keywords = {adhd, brain-computer interfacing, children, design, neurofeedback, sound},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Children in North America are more likely to suffer from attentional challenges than any other mental health issue. Studies suggest that neurofeedback treatments may be useful for helping these children learn to self-regulate. Applying neurofeedback treatments in real-world, school settings poses a challenge, however, as these environments are often noisy and filled with distractions. The addition of ambient audio to neurofeedback systems may help reduce these disruptions. Further, research suggests that certain auditory treatments, such as binaural beats and white noise, may improve children's focus and aid memory recall. In the following paper we present the theories supporting this idea as well as a mixed methods framework for evaluating whether sound can help children focus while learning to self-regulate using a neurofeedback system. Specifically, we wish to investigate whether these treatments may help children (1) achieve an attentive state sooner and (2) maintain an attentive state for longer, when compared to the same system without sound.