ABSTRACT. Research into the impact of social networking sites (SNSs) on user wellbeing has been inconclusive. While some studies show a link between SNS use and decreased satisfaction with life (Kross et al., 2013), increased loneliness (Burke, Marlow, & Lento, 2010), and greater depressive symptoms (Selfhout, Branje, Delsing, ter Bogt, & Meeus, 2009), others show that SNS use can have positive effects on wellbeing. Examples include SNS use being linked with decreased loneliness (Lou, Yan, Nickerson, & McMorris, 2012) and an increased sense of social support (Oh, Ozkaya, & LaRose, 2014). One potential explanation for these discrepant findings is that different motivations for SNS use, especially being motivated by a desire to belong (as discussed in Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012), may better account for variations in the relationship between SNS use and perceived wellbeing. This study aimed to explore the impact of motivations, frequency of interactions on SNSs, and perceived social support as an indicator of wellbeing among users of a popular, image-based SNS – Instagram. An online cross-sectional survey was completed by 367 Instagram users between March and September 2017, of which 314 were suitable for analysis (84.4% female, aged 13-56 years, median=22, SD=7.9). Participants were recruited through posts on social media, university newsletters, research websites, paid Facebook advertisements, and physical posts on two campuses of The University of Sydney. The majority of participants were from Australia (68%), followed by The United States of America (16%), Singapore (7%), England (5%), Canada (2%), and one participant each from China, India, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, and Panama. The survey consisted of standardised and non-standardised questionnaires asking participants about their demographics, motivations for using Instagram, frequency of engagement with Instagram, and perceived social support and life satisfaction. This paper reports the results from multiple regression mediation analyses examining the relationship between being motivated by a sense of belonging, frequency of Instagram use, and perceived social support. As hypothesised, being motivated to use Instagram by a desire to belong was significantly positively associated with frequency of viewing (b=0.06, p<0.01), liking (b=0.08, p<0.01), and posting images (b=0.31, p=0.01) on Instagram. A desire to belong also significantly positively predicted total perceived social support [b(viewing)=0.22, p=0.01; b(liking)=0.24, p<0.01; b(posting)=0.24, p<0.01] and perceived social support from friends [b(viewing)=0.36, p<0.01; b(liking)=0.33, p<0.01; b(posting)=0.37, p<0.01] but not from family (p>0.05). However, frequency of online behaviour did not mediate the relationship between users being motivated by a sense of belonging and subsequent perceived social support (p>0.05). These findings highlight that the more Instagram users are motivated by a desire to belong, the more frequently they view posts, like posts, and post images. Being motivated to use Instagram by a desire to belong also predicts increased feelings of perceived social support. Although more research is needed, these findings suggest that rather than examining frequency of SNS use as a predictor of wellbeing outcomes, researchers should consider the motivations of SNS users as well. That is, a more comprehensive understanding of outcomes of online behaviours would also include considerations of user motivations. As this study only focused on Instagram, future research could further explore the impact of being motivated by a desire to belong on wellbeing in other, increasingly popular, image-based SNSs such as Snapchat.

ABSTRACT. Research has consistently found that social networking site (SNS) users are motivated by a desire for positive self-presentation. These users report removing or untagging themselves from unflattering online photos (Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009), choosing specific profile pictures (Strano, 2008), or curating their profile content (Peluchette & Karl, 2009) to present themselves favourably. Much of this research has been conducted on Facebook, and there is limited understanding of how audience shapes Instagram behaviour, despite the platform’s increasing popularity. Researchers have examined publically available Instagram profiles to determine the types of images shared on Instagram (Hu, Manikonda, and Kambhampati, 2014). Keep and Amon (2017), however, found that types of followers predicted how users interacted on Instagram. There is limited understanding of how audience, and stranger followers specifically, affect Instagram photo content. This study aims to address this gap in understanding by presenting findings on the relationship between audience and the types of images shared on Instagram. Methods The cross-sectional, online survey was completed by 425 participants (80% female, aged 15 to 63 years, Median=21 years) between March and July 2014. Participants were recruited via social media posts, listings on research study websites, and flyers across two campuses of The University of Sydney. The survey consisted of questions about participants’ Instagram use, motivations for sharing images, and privacy concerns (for more detail see, Keep & Amon, 2017). In this paper, we report new findings based on Mann-Whitney U tests comparing the types of images shared on Instagram by participants who expected strangers to view their posts and those who did not. Results Under half (47.5%, N=202) of the respondents expected strangers to view their posts. Participants who expected strangers to view their Instagram posts shared significantly more images that they took themselves (Mrank=226.71) compared to participants who did not expect strangers to view their posts (Mrank=197.86), U=19465, z=-2.50, p=0.012, r=-0.12. Similarly, participants who expected strangers to view their posts (Mrank=166.54) shared more images they found on the Internet than participants who did not expect strangers to view their posts (Mrank=147.15), U=13760, z=2.12, p=0.034, r=-0.10. There were no significant differences on the proportion of Instagram posts that were reposts of other users’ images (p=0.69).

Of the images that users took themselves, participants who did not expect strangers to view their posts reported significantly greater proportions of images of friends (Mrank=203.76) and family (Mrank=193.47) than participants who expected strangers in their audience (Mrank=174.79, Mrank=161.75, respectively), Ufriends=15172, z=-2.60, p=0.009, r=-0.13; Ufamily=12978, z=-2.96, p=0.003, r=-0.14. In contrast, participants who expected strangers to view their Instagram posts shared more images of their hobbies (Mrank=2.15.28) and memes (Mrank=169.53) than participants who did not expect strangers to view their posts (Mrank=158.87, Mrank=147.47, respectively), Uhobbies=22651, z=5.09, p<0.001, r=0.25; Umemes=14225, z=2.36, p=0.018, r=0.11. Discussion The findings suggest that participants who expect strangers to view their Instagram posts focus on sharing different types of images to participants who do not expect stranger followers. Specifically, participants in the former group seem to present more curated profiles with a focus on themselves and their interests (i.e. memes, hobbies). In contrast, participants who did not expect strangers to view their Instagram posts shared more images about their relationships. These findings are consistent with the two-factor model of SNS use (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012) which states that individuals are motivated to interact on SNSs for self-presentation and a desire to belong. These results provide further evidence that audience, and to an extent motivation, shape people’s SNS use. Although significant, the effect sizes were small, and future research could further explore these relationships in larger and more demographically diverse sample sizes.

ABSTRACT. A study by McAndrew and Jeong (2012) found many gender differences in the use of Facebook, and interpreted them in the light of evolutionary psychological theories. Females were more active Facebook users, spent more time on the site, had more Facebook friends, interacted more there with their families, and tended to update their profile picture more often and post more photos of themselves. The current study attempts to test whether similar gender differences apply to the very different environment of Twitter, where interactions are typically more public yet also in many ways more anonymous.

In the pilot phase, participants were recruited by advertising on the site findparticipants.com, targeting regular users of Twitter in the survey description. Of participants who stated they were regular Twitter users at the start of the survey, and completed most of the other questions, 17 were female and 32 were male. One participant preferred not to specify either gender category and was excluded from the current analysis (since it focuses on female/male gender differences), yielding an N of 49. We constructed a questionnaire based on McAndrew & Jeong’s (2012) research methods, with some additional questions and changes to existing questions to make them more appropriate in the context of Twitter. The questionnaire took 20–30 minutes to complete, and participants were paid a token sum for starting it. For the full study, around 1000 participants are being recruited by tweeting a survey link to random Twitter users.

The pilot phase did not find similar results for gender differences among Twitter users to the pattern that McAndrew and Jeong (2012) found for Facebook users. Females were not significantly likely to tweet more, use Twitter more often, have more followers or follow other users more, interact more with their families, or update their profile picture more often or post more photos of themselves. However, we did find significant results for three additional questions that we introduced for this study, and which had an evolutionary rationale. Males were more likely to respond (by “liking”, retweeting, or replying) to tweets about what the tweeter does for a job (t = 2.52, p = .015), were more likely to post photos of themselves with more than one other person (t = 2.06, p = .046), and were more likely to “like” photos tweeted by members of the opposite sex (t = 2.97, p = .005).

In interpreting the null results for the replication of the Facebook study it is important to realize that achieved power was just under 50% to detect a medium-sized effect. Nevertheless, the fact that not one of seven hypotheses was supported suggests there may be important differences in how women and men use Twitter as compared to Facebook. The less personal environment of Twitter, with its emphasis on political debate, work-related self-promotion, and other forms of “showing off”, may provide a less appealing environment than Facebook to many women. Conversely, given the large number of questions analyzed, the significant results for the new questions could be type I errors. However, these results make sense from an evolutionary point of view: males may be more likely to take an interest in a friend or rival’s career, to post photos of themselves bonding with teams of colleagues, and to take an interest in the visual appearance of members of the opposite sex. As stated above, I am presently running a much larger-scale study with about 1000 participants to test these hypotheses more rigorously, along with further hypotheses (again following McAndrew & Jeong, 2012) about participants’ age and relationship status.

ABSTRACT. Introduction/problem This study analyses the psychological dynamics of interactive, politically engaged Twitter usage amongst Saudi Arabian women, focusing on the feminist hashtag #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen. Online social networks can potentially offer individuals in restrictive contexts, such as Saudi Arabia, the ability to speak relatively freely. Such networks can thus be perceived as offering a place of temporary norm suspension (Cooper, 2014). The emergence of this form of online protest might lead to conflict with the Saudi Arabian establishment, challenging as it does existing societal norms. It is important for both the Saudi government and its people, then, to understand the relevant issues raised by this phenomenon. The current research is informed by recent social psychology literature, for example Leach and Livingstone’s (2015) argument for psychological resistance as a valid alternative to direct confrontation.

Method/tools The social media analytic tool Keyhole was used to track tweets in both Arabic and English for the hashtag #StopEnslavingSaudiWomen, over a period of one month, stretching from 29 March 2017 to 28 April 2017. A total of 25,942 tweets were collated, comprising 24,758 tweets in English and 1,184 in Arabic. Prior to the process of coding, the data were scrutinised for exclusion criteria. Excluded tweets were retweets, tweets that featured only the hashtag and no other text, links to other sources, and pictures/videos. Following this, the total number of tweets was 7,219. Tweets were then coded and analysed using the thematic analysis (TA) approach. Some advantages of this approach are laid out by Braun and Clarke (2006), who emphasise the flexibility of TA – whereas many qualitative methods stem from a particular epistemological position, thematic analysis is compatible with both realist and constructionist approaches to knowledge. The coded data set was then given to a second coder to analyse, to indicate whether the coding schema was plausible.

Results Themes developed during the process of analysis and coding were informed partly by Haslam and Reicher’s (2012) model of collective identity and resistance. Final theme categories were shared common experience of subordination/shared identity (i.e. a sense of common fate; “We're stripped of our basic human rights, this is about all of us”), illegitimacy (the expression that those in charge are wrong/illegitimate; “I am free in myself, God created me free, who are you to deprive me of my freedom!”), cognitive alternatives (the ability to imagine an alternative to the current system; “Saudi women… know we are strong enough to achieve [change]”), leadership (e.g. calls to action, organising resistance; “If these unjust laws change, we will be the champions of this country who helped the next generation to live in peace”), third-party support (appeals for support from those outside of the system in question; “Please use the English hashtag so that we can spread our message abroad”), and oppositional disruption (individuals attempting to delegitimise the resistance movement; “You are the pets of Americans, you don’t appreciate being treated like queens in this country”).

Conclusion The results of this research demonstrate, in accordance with earlier theorists, that Twitter offers certain means of social psychological resistance. However, the ways in which Twitter users performed resistance were determined in large part by the affordances of the medium in question, as well as the wider context of Saudi Arabian society. Analysis revealed the presence of small instances of resistance that might lay the groundwork for subsequent resistance on a larger scale, with stronger leadership and a greater belief in cognitive alternatives.

ABSTRACT. The age of information technology impacts the way people manage their lives and conduct their business on a daily basis. Emerging adults use technology in almost all aspects of their lives, but their overall information and computer literacy does not necessarily follow. Researchers have found that an individual’s perception of information security significantly impacts their behaviors and decision-making (Huang, Rau, Salvendy, Gao, & Zhou, 2011). Similarly, research has found that knowledge of information security policy and procedures predicted attitudes towards these policies (Parsons, McCormac, Butavicius, Pattinson, & Jerram, 2014). Emerging adults have been identified as being at high risk and attractive candidates for security attacks (Algarni, Xu, & Chan, 2015; Rezgui & Marks, 2008). Information security awareness encompasses the attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge one’s has toward information security and is an essential part of helping to minimize the risk of insider threat and social engineering attacks (Mitnick & Simon, 2002; Parsons et al., 2015; Rezgui & Marks, 2008). Individual personality characteristics play a key role in the formation of attitudes and influence behaviors regarding information security as well as how they present themselves online to include disclosure of personal or sensitive information (Chen & Marcus, 2012; Joinson, Reips, Buchanan, & Schofield, 2010; Power & Kirwan, 2015). Participants recruited for this study were undergraduate students enrolled in one of two neighboring public universities in the Southeastern area of Virginia. Both are four-year institutions, with one classified as a historically Black college/university (HBCU). Surveying occurred between the Spring 2017 and Fall 2017 academic semesters. A demographics questionnaire created for this study was used to gather descriptive information. The Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991) is comprised of 44-itmes and was used to assess personality characteristics across five domains: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. This study also utilized the Online Security Behaviors and Beliefs survey, which consists of 75 items that assesses various domains of information security and associated behaviors (Anwar et al., 2016) to measure information security attitudes and behaviors. Results and implications will be discussed in the context of cross-cultural equivalence between the current African American sample and existing data from primarily Caucasian samples.

ABSTRACT. Introduction. To date, meta-analyses concerning e-mental health for depression have mostly considered influences of specific interventions, underlying therapy model, and added guidance on clinical outcomes, but have neglected influences of technology. This gap in the literature warranted the creation of an open access database of e-mental health systems, i.e. software applications that support the delivery of psychotherapeutic interventions, for the treatment and prevention of major depressive disorder and dysthymia in adults. The database allows for the systematic examination of the composition of these systems and how this relates to their evaluation context and dropout rates. Method. An exhaustive search was conducted for articles published from 2000 to 2017 describing eHealth interventions for depression on Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science. A total of 5379 documents were retrieved from the three databases and additional sources. After filtering, 273 primary research articles remained for inclusion in the database. To populate the database, a single coder extracted information on 45 variables concerning systems and their evaluations from the publications. A sample of each high-inference variable was double coded by a second coder to assess reliability. Furthermore, scales were developed to assign a degree of technological sophistication to system functionality. Concurrent validity of these scales was calculated by correlating ratings assigned with the scale to those obtained from an unlabeled ordering task. Results. In filtering, coders agreed on the inclusion or exclusion of records in approximately 80% of cases. Percent agreement in double coding of the high-inference variables was satisfactory given that coders received no training and the number of possible categories was large. Four of the five scales to assess technological sophistication demonstrated concurrent validity. Database. The database consists of a total of 14 tables that can be grouped into three larger clusters. The systems cluster details the e-mental health systems, their functionality, and how these relate to therapeutic techniques (four tables). The systems are characterized on a macro-level (year of completion; whether its purpose is to prevent, treat, or monitor; whether it is guided, unguided, or an adjunct to face-to-face therapy; etc.) and on a micro-level, i.e. their functions. Functions are split into two types: support and intervention functions. Support functions are aimed at increasing adherence to the intervention. These are again categorized into four subtypes: support functions for treatment planning (e.g. scheduling of sessions), treatment execution (e.g. reminders), monitoring (e.g. monitoring of symptoms), and social support (e.g. therapist support). Intervention functions support patient activities aimed at reducing depression symptoms. They are linked to specific therapeutic intervention classes (e.g. the component “identifying and challenging automatic thoughts” is linked to Cognitive Therapy). Each instantiation of a function in each system is rated with regard to its degree of technological sophistication. The database currently contains a total of 265 systems with 2181 instantiations of functions. The second cluster of tables in the database is the evaluations cluster, detailing the empirical studies of the systems in the systems cluster, their design, the employed measurement instruments, and dropout rates per study arm (four tables). Finally, the publications cluster details articles describing systems and their evaluations and the authors of these articles (three tables). The remaining three tables link systems to evaluations, systems to publications, and publications to evaluations. Conclusion. For researchers in both computer science and clinical psychology, the database presents a useful tool for the systematic study of e-mental health interventions for depression. It allows for a better understanding of system composition and of how components contribute to clinical outcomes. Since the database is open access and implemented as a standard MySQL database, it can be linked with other databases, for example, databases of clinical trials.

ABSTRACT. Increasing use of smartphones is a notable and worldwide phenomenon, and investigating the potential role this use has on population health is a critical area of research. Prior studies have found psychopathology correlated with frequency of smartphone use. In particular, research demonstrates that depression and anxiety severity are associated with increased, as well as excessive, smartphone use. However, this research has primarily relied on cross-sectional data to examine how psychopathology predicts smartphone use. And furthermore, most of this research has solely utilized subjectively, self-reported rather than objectively measured smartphone use. These methodological shortcomings should be overcome to understand a truer picture of the association between increased smartphone use and psychopathology. Utilizing an intensive repeated measures study design, we used a smartphone application (app) to monitor daily minutes of smartphone use over the course of one week among 68 college students recruited in the Midwestern United States. We tested the validity of the app in monitoring smartphone use by pilot testing it with six research assistants over ten trials each, measured against a stopwatch, finding strong support for its validity. Research participants were first presented an informed consent statement, and those consenting were administered several online survey instruments. The surveys queried demographics, smartphone use frequency, excessive smartphone use (Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version), depression severity (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and emotion regulation (Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, measuring cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression). After the online survey, in the following week participants met with research assistants to install the app, and their smartphone use was monitored for one week to obtain a daily count of screen time minutes used. We used latent growth curve modeling to examine the role of baseline psychopathology scores of depression and emotion regulation deficits to predict daily smartphone use and changes over the week, adjusting for age and gender. Seven days of smartphone use in minutes represented the repeatedly measured dependent variable. We estimated the model using maximum likelihood procedures with robust standard errors. We tested not only linear changes, but also non-linear changes over the week of measurement. The sample averaged 240.48 (SD = 98.43) minutes of smartphone use per day. Unexpectedly, we found that lower depression severity predicted increased smartphone use over the week. Additionally, greater use of expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy predicted more baseline smartphone use, but less smartphone use over the week. These findings suggest that depression and expressive suppression of emotions accounted for significant variability in objectively measured smartphone use. Depression and emotion regulation are discussed in regard to corresponding patterns of smartphone usage. However, because participants were aware that they smartphone use was being measured, such knowledge could influence results. This project contributes to knowledge of psychopathological correlates of smartphone use by repeated, objective smartphone use measurement.

ABSTRACT. Kids Helpline - Australia, in collaboration with The University of Sydney, have been developing and trialing a purpose built, national mental health social network for group counselling 13-25 year olds. First conceptualized in 2014, the social network for mental health management is known as 'KHL Circles'. It has now completed its first phase of participatory action research with client and counsellor centered evaluation, leading to an evidence-based design of how to engage young people at risk of self-harm, and who have lived experience with depression and anxiety. The preliminary findings will be presented on its effectiveness and iterative design to best support young people via group counselling in a social network.

During 2017, the first phase of the clinical recruitment cycle, N=78 clients were recruited and divided in 6 groups that underwent group counselling synchronously and asynchronously for a period of 8 weeks, per group. Each group was established with a close age focus (e.g. 13-14 year olds; 18-19year olds), to stimulate age appropriate discussion and develop related experience disclosure with a counsellor facilitating 24/7. Each participant was surveyed at 2 weekly interviews for depression and anxiety symptomology, distress and levels of perceived social support. Additionally, each client took part in UX for the improvement of the social network platform and various functional tools (e.g. video posting, chat functions, emoji use, etc).

Utilising an ‘off the shelf’ social network platform known as ELGG https://elgg.org/ the social network was customized to provide clients with anonymity when engaging with other clients at all times. Whilst this did not stop clients wanting to disclosure their identity once relationships were formed, Kids Helpline provides a contractual agreement with its clients that during ELGG use they were to remain anonymous in order to promote confidence and comfort for clients to talk openly about mental health concerns. Inside KHL Circles, client identity is only known by the counsellor in charge of online group counselling sessions.

Findings for the first clinical trial noted clients perceived improvement of mental health distress and increased levels of perceived social support. Given the small sample size significance was not achieved, but the participatory action research method incorporating qualitative feedback and iterative improvements to the group counselling process, mental health modules provided online, and improved functionality of the custom designed KHL Circles, was strongly endorsed by the clients.

It is the focus of yourtown – Kids Helpline, to continue this research indefinitely to ensure the evidence-based for a mental health management model via social networking is validated and developed for duplication by any mental health service internationally. Given this, funding for this project is ongoing via FGX Future Generation Investment Company, as is the commitment of The University of Sydney Cyberpsychology Research Group to conduct and publish this important translational research.

ABSTRACT. The impact of verbal and textual expectation on the perceived and objective usability and visual appeal of a website was examined. Many studies have been done on the relationship between usability and visual appeal but the results vary vastly. There are many factors that influence the results, including website domain, the type of task, if incentive is given, and metrics used to get the usability and visual appeal measures. However, the impact of expectations on these two variables is understudied. Five preliminary studies [1] were completed in order to get a website that was easy and pretty. Three levels of expectations were implemented: (a) easy and pretty, (b) hard and ugly, and (c) the control – no expectations. A computer laboratory study, in the form of user-based usability test, was completed to determine the effect of textual and verbal expectations on visual appeal and usability. Expectations were implemented textually and/or verbally. The textual expectations were in the form of a nuanced task description. The verbal expectations came from a confederate who acted like a participant and spoke to participants before the study began. A previous study [2] used only textual expectations. The present study repeated the method of the previous study [2] but added verbal expectations to strengthen the implementation. 
In the present study, 20 (16 males, 4 females; 16 aged 18-30 years, 4 aged 31+) participants were recruited. All volunteered and were screened for 20/20 or corrected to 20/20 vision and colour blindness. 
Statistical results showed that the combination of textual and verbal expectations successfully influenced participants. Specifically, when usability and visual appeal levels were congruent (e.g. both high), then expectations influenced them both equally as participants tended to agree with the expectations, pre- and post-use. When told that the website was going to be hard and ugly, participants were discouraged from using it, stating it was too hard to use, and struggled more when using it. Similarly, participants thought that the website was easier to use and prettier in the high expectations group than in the low expectations group. Outcomes of this research suggest that web developers and project managers should focus on investing in marketing and social media influencers just as much as in the development of a pretty and usable website, given that prior expectations do influence how users experience a website.
[1] Stojmenovic, M., Pilgrim, C., & Lindgaard, G. (2014). Perceived and Objective Usability and Visual Appeal in a Website Domain with a Less Developed Mental Model. OZCHI’14, Dec2-5, Sydney, Australia, 316-323.
[2] Stojmenovic, M., Grundy, J., Farrell, V., Biddle, R., & Hoon, L. (2016). Does Textual Word-of-Mouth Affect Look and Feel? OZCHI’16, Nov29–Dec2, Launceston, Australia, 257-265.

ABSTRACT. Detrimental effects of women’s negative feelings during pregnancy have been extensively examined and documented, whereas interventions aimed to support and maximize maternal prenatal well-being are scarce. Recently, the research on perinatal care has expanded to a saluthogenic approach. This saluthogenic perspective is supported by Positive Psychology (PP), and studies have shown the effects of online-based Positive Psychology Interventions (OPPIs) on maximizing well-being in different populations. Indeed, web-based interventions have been indicated to be a promising and advisable form of intervention addressed to pregnant women. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the feasibility of an OPPI aimed at supporting women’s mental well-being during pregnancy. A single-group descriptive pilot study was carried out in order to explore (A) how this intervention would be perceived by pregnant women, and (B) if it would show a preliminary evidence of efficacy in increasing positive mood. 70 pregnant women aged from 21 to 43 years (M=32.7, SD=15.8), enrolled in the study. At the time of recruitment, women’s gestational week ranged from 4th to 34th (M=19.6, SD=9.1). Women were required to be over 18 years old, to be up to 34 weeks pregnant at recruitment time, and willing to raise the baby. The intervention was available in three languages (i.e., English, Spanish, and Italian), thus participants needed to have adequate knowledge of one of these languages, as well as having regular Internet access. The 5-week, self-applied intervention consisted of four modules (i.e., mindfulness and self-acceptance; savoring; connectedness and gratitude; optimism and meaning in life). Well-being indices (i.e., self-confidence, self-acceptance, optimism, satisfaction with life, connectedness and perceives social support) were assessed before and after each module, as well as activities’ frequency, appreciation, easy-to-use and perceived benefit. Women’s positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) were assessed before and after the intervention. Qualitative data about a global evaluation of the intervention were also collected. An attrition rate of 37.1% was found from pre- to post-intervention. A series of repeated measure ANOVA revealed no significant difference between PA at pre- and post-intervention (p= 1.0). Although NA’s values decreased, the analyses did not show significant differences (p=.3). Regarding the balance of negative and positive feelings, there was not a significant change (p=.6). Self-confidence significantly increased [F(1,23)=14.6, p=.0, ƞ2=.4]. Specifically, Bonferroni post-hoc analyses showed a statistically significant difference between self-confidence values at pre- and post-intervention (p=.0). Statistically significant differences were not found for the others well-being indexes. The most appreciated exercise was the connectedness- and gratitude- based “Connectedness” exercise, which was also the one assessed as the most difficult, and the one about which women reported to have perceived the most benefits from its practice. A Pearson correlation revealed positive and statistically significant correlations between frequency and appreciation of all the exercises (r=.4 to r=.8), as well as between frequency and perceived benefit (r=.4 to r=.7). Regarding the relation between frequency of practice and easy-to-use, there was a significant positive relation only for the “Connectedness” exercise (r=.4). Participants reported to be satisfied with the intervention and they would recommend the program to other pregnant women. The present study has some limitations, as the small sample size and the absence of a control condition and a follow-up evaluation. Although these are very preliminary data, the results presented in this pilot study are encouraging. Future studies are needed in order to investigate and tailor optimal positive interventions for this population.

ABSTRACT. This symposium aims to present four projects that are carried out in the Virtual Teaching and Cyber-Psychology Laboratory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. During it’s years of operation the lab had consolidated the strategy of developing, evaluating and disseminating evidence based psychological interventions based in e-technologies for Mexican population.

In the last 10 years, the number of socially relevant problems in our country had increased. Among others: child obesity in Mexico had doubled the number of cases of obese children between the ages of 6 and 15; the cases of problem drinkers increment as well Hispanic victims of domestic violence abroad; as well as the shortage of services for the rehabilitation of patients with brain damage that require once the patient leaves the clinic. Addressing to these main psychological issues and incorporating the application of new technologies in Mexico, our team had address the development of On-line interventions in order to overcome geographical limits and social barriers; as well as the adaptation to the cultural and social context of effective interventions, that allows us to support with empirical bases in other populations to obtain the external validity of effective interventions and scientific advance in this emergent field.

Conformed by four papers, this session will present results of three On-line interventions, as well as a prevention platform for child obesity: (1) the evaluation of psychological counselling program to Mexican migrant community in USA (2) An Internet-based guided self-change program for problem drinkers (3) initial results of a long-distance rehabilitation therapy platform for brain injury patients, and (4) the outcomes obtained of the adaptation of a CBT protocol supported by an intelligent e-therapy system for the treatment of childhood obesity .

ABSTRACT. Research on remote psychotherapy has shown promising outcomes regarding its efficacy in the treatment of non-suicidal depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and phobias, among others (Richards & Richardson, 2012; Botella et al., 2008; Proudfoot et al., 2004; Lange et al., 2000; Marks, 1999; Greist et al., 1998; Osgood-Hynes et al., 1998; Schneider, Schwartz, & Fast, 1995). In Mexico, positive results were found concerning the efficacy of an online cognitive-behavioural intervention for the treatment of depression (Flores, Cárdenas, Durán, & de la Rosa, 2014).

The use of this psychotherapeutic modality is increasingly appealing to both professionals and patients not only because of the empirical evidence, but also for advantages such as overcoming geographical barriers, the possibility of both synchronous and asynchronous communication, the ability to meet patient´s specific needs, etc. These are precisely the sort of characteristics that make online interventions helpful in addressing psychological problems of Mexicans abroad.

Even though the number of Mexicans in the USA has decreased in recent years, they still have a significant presence in the country. In 2015, Mexicans represented 63.3% of the Hispanic population in America (Flores, 2017). Migration represents a stressful process with situations that migrants must deal with such as a language barrier, breakdown of family and social ties, feelings of loss, reduced coping resources, and adjustment to a new environment (Pumariega, Roth, & Pumariega, 2009). Evidence has shown that these post-migration challenges may aggravate pre-existing mental health problems or cause new ones (Peterson & Gong, 2009). Existing data suggest that acculturative stress may contribute towards the development of depression, grief, and anxiety, among others (Vilar & Eibenschutz, 2007). Also, it has been reported that suicide is the third leading cause of death among Hispanics between the ages of 10 and 24 (Pérez-Escamilla, 2010).

Responding to this need for psychological attention, our team started a cognitive-behavioural virtual and telephone counselling program for emotional wellbeing project (CoVIBE), provided by Mexican counsellors to the Mexican immigrant community in the USA. This initiative arose from the assumption that online tools can make psychological interventions easier for Mexicans abroad and may compensate for cultural variables. This is because Mexican patients could interact with a professional sharing the same nationality, language and idiosyncrasies, thus fostering a more positive therapeutic relationship. Aim: To present outcomes about the efficacy of remote therapy in the wellbeing of Mexican community residing in the USA. Method: The sample included 89 patients with a mean age of 40.67 years (SD = 11.93), 84.3% female and 15.7% male. Most research participants were married (36.4%). The main diagnoses were anxiety (26.4%), adjustment disorder (17.2%), and posttraumatic stress disorder (16.1%). Procedure: Firstly, we distributed advertising materials about the CoVIBE program through the Department of Protection and Legal Affairs of the Mexican Consulate in San Bernardino. Subsequently, the Department sent us an email with a list of potential candidates for counselling, and we contacted them by phone, scheduling a date for a pre-treatment assessment. Depending on the diagnosis, patients could receive three types of intervention: crisis assistance (a one-hour session), counselling for critical incidents (1-3 one-hour sessions), and a brief psychotherapeutic intervention (5-6 one-hour sessions). Patients could choose between an internet or telephone treatment.  Once patients had finished the intervention, they completed the post-treatment evaluations.  General measures to assess recovery were the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1961), Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck & Steer, 2011) and Quality of Life Scale WHOQOL-BREF (WHOQOL group, 1998). Results: Outcomes concerning quality of life and rates of recovery from anxiety and depression symptoms will be presented at the Conference.

ABSTRACT. In Mexico, alcohol abuse represents a significant burden of disease, accounting for 6.5% of premature deaths and 1.5% of disability-adjusted life years (Gómez-Dantés et al., 2017). Unfortunately, effective treatment of alcohol abuse is limited because the resources allocated to mental health in Mexico are insufficient and inappropriately distributed (WHO, 2011).

The proportion of drinkers with less serious alcohol-related problems far outnumbers the severely dependent individuals (Sobell & Sobell, 2015). These “problem drinkers” have experienced negative consequences due to their alcohol use or are at risk of experiencing such consequences, but don´t use alcohol continuously, don’t present significant withdrawal symptoms and have periods of moderate use or abstinence. In Mexico this pattern of consumption is seen in a low alcohol intake throughout the week and a heavy episodic consumption during the weekends (National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, 2017) Despite the prevalence of problem drinkers, the majority of existing treatments for alcohol abuse tend to be extensive, intensive and costly (Sobell & Sobell, 2015).

There is considerable evidence that problem drinkers might benefit more from a less intensive treatment (Sobell & Sobell, 2005), and decades of research have shown that brief interventions can be an effective treatment for people with mild to moderate alcohol problems (Heather, 2004; Nielsen, Kaner, & Babor, 2008). One of these treatments, guided self-change (GSC), is a brief cognitive-behavioral motivational intervention, consisting of four sessions (excluding admission and assessment) aimed at advising the clients in making informed and responsible decisions regarding their drinking, and performing a functional analysis of their drinking patterns in order to identify their high-risk drinking situations and applying more adaptive coping strategies (Sobell & Sobell, 2005). It has been shown to be effective in individual and group formats, and with different populations. Thus, a wider implementation of this program would be particularly beneficial in Mexico, given its problems with the current mental health infrastructure.

Additional benefits might be obtained from an Internet-based intervention format, such as a wide array of treatment options, remote access, confidentiality, increased patient honesty and motivation, as well as cost-effectiveness (Clarke et al., 2009; Marks, Cavanagh, & Gega, 2007).

Aims: The presentation of a case study using email and telephone for the administration of GSC as a precedent for a future adaptation of said intervention to an online platform, as well as its subsequent assessment using a randomized controlled trial. Procedure: The case of a participant residing in San Francisco, and who contacted the Addiction Treatment and Prevention Center (UNAM) in Mexico City seeking help for an alcohol problem was analyzed. The client´s characteristics, pattern of consumption, treatment procedure and outcome with a six-month follow-up were evaluated. Results: The participant was a 32-year-old male, married and fully employed, who sought treatment for an excessive alcohol use, resulting in marital and interpersonal problems. The subject had abstained from using alcohol for four months prior to treatment and contacted the therapist with the desire to resume a moderate consumption on social occasions. Otherwise healthy, the subject´s assessment identified a problematic pattern of alcohol use (SADD score = 12). The client´s main triggers for problematic drinking were identified and coping strategies were developed. The client chose as a goal a maximum consumption of four drinks per week, but suffered a relapse after two months and successfully returned to abstinence, which was maintained at a six-month follow-up. The client expressed satisfaction with the treatment modality, and no communication problems using email and telephone were reported.

ABSTRACT. Rehabilitation is a long and arduous process that should not end when the patient leaves the clinic. Rehabilitation exercises must continue at home. Nevertheless, there are not many opportunities for enduring the same tasks that are taught at the rehabilitation centers. Patients suffering from Traumatic Brian Injuries (TBI) need, in most cases, to relearn almost all daily life activities (Wang et al, 2004). The TBI has strong consequences as a neuropsychological and conduction dysfunction like deficit in the executive functions, working memory and semantical abilities (Bruns y Hauser, 2003; Ramírez-Flores & Ostrosky-Solis, 2009). Only the 40% of TBI survivors are able to return to their productive activities after their injury (VanVelzen et al, 2009).

Regarding the application of new technologies on rehabilitation, the most promising advance may reside on the use of virtual reality in combination with wideband internet connection in order to provide and back up rehabilitation training. The use of 3D (3 dimensions) virtual environments offers the possibility of real-time feedback of subject’s position and progression [4], whereas the wideband technology provides mobile and remote application of the 3D virtual environments for Tele-rehabilitation. Currently, several studies are evaluating the effectiveness of virtual environments on rehabilitation training. Virtual Reality (VR) seems, during hospitalization, to promote a more intensive and supportive approach to the execution of the exercises and provides appropriate feedback to the patient. Also, exercises may be displayed with an adapting degree of difficulty, making possible the use of non-invasive forms of physiological monitoring. VR, in addition, gives to the therapist the ability to customize treatment needs, while provides the opportunity for repeated learning trials offering the ability to gradually increase the complexity of the tasks while decreasing dependency of the therapist.

First step of the study, was to adapt Gamito’s group tele-rehabilitation platform (Gamito et al, 2016) according to the Mexican social context in order to provide online access to the rehabilitation settings and exercises, and to offer an immersive and user-friendly environment for the local population. This paper describes initial results of two case-studies with repeated measurements in order to assess usability and effectivity seeking the implementation of a randomized controlled study with a sample of 24 TBI patients assigned to two groups: an experimental group, which will undergo rehabilitation exercises in the platform and a control group, which will practice using traditional procedures. An increase in working memory and attention levels of participants are expected results, which could suggest that VR applications may promote the autonomy and increase quality of life of these patients. Furthermore, the platform will help patient with brain injury to have a long-distance rehabilitation therapy overcoming geographical limits.

ABSTRACT. Obesity is a major health problem that is increasing at an alarming rate among the population of all ages. In the last 10 years, the number of cases of obesity in Mexico has doubled and the number of cases of obese children between the ages of 6 and 15 has tripled (OM-C, 2013, Ponce et al., 2010). Furthermore, Mexico has the highest incidence of obesity in schoolchildren in Latin America (Ponce et al., 2010). Obesity is a chronic and multifactorial disease, associated with serious negative physical and psychological consequences, with an onset in childhood that can lead to a reduction in life expectancy if not treated in time. The treatment of obesity involves medical as well as psychological aspects; one of them is intrinsic motivation, fundamental for an effective treatment of obesity, since it helps to maintain a healthy lifestyle after the conclusion of treatment, since the maintenance of its effects represents a great challenge in the long term. For this reason, there is a need to support the development of appropriate and effective treatments aimed specifically at children, customized to their needs and ensuring treatment compliance. Technological advances can offer devices that favor constant support, increase motivation and provide continuing encouragement, thus strengthening the child in an environment that might be unfavorable for the development and maintenance of healthier habits. For this reason, a cognitive-behavioral treatment named ETIOBE was designed by Spanish researchers to encourage weight loss and a change to healthier habits. To date, the system has shown favorable results, since they indicate improvement in motivation, commitment and adherence to treatment. In collaboration with the University of Valencia and the Universtat Jaume I of Spain, the Virtual Teaching and Cyberpsychology Laboratory of UNAM carried out the adaptation and implementation of this program in secondary schools in Mexico City. ETIOBE consists of a CBT  protocol supported by an intelligent e-therapy system for the treatment of childhood obesity. The intelligent factor of the system is based on the use of sensors that allow obtaining relevant patient information (contextual, physiological and psychological), and its communication and information applications are capable of transferring this data. This system has two fundamental purposes. First, it is an application that assists the clinician in facilitating the creation of a personalized intervention protocol, adapting it to the characteristics of each patient, and it provides help in the supervision and control of treatment follow-up. Second, the application provides home access to content suggested by the therapist, including some activities and interactive games that facilitate the learning of habit modification. The participants were formed by 317 first-year high school students from public schools in Mexico City. A quasi-experimental design of two groups with a pre-test and a post-test was used; group 1 received the intelligent e-therapy system program, while group 2 received all the content of the program organized in a printed booklet. In both groups the level of knowledge about diet and eating habits was evaluated before and after participating in the study. The results show that both interventions are effective in increasing knowledge. Regarding eating habits, intervention 1 is effective in reducing external and emotional eating, while intervention 2 is more effective in reducing restrictive eating. This project represents an effort to collaborate, unify technological advances and estimate the external validity of programs focused on this socially relevant issue, applying them to a major health problem in Mexican adolescents.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Body image disturbance is considered a pervasive issue among women and is a core feature of eating disorders. Previous research provides evidence of the ability of body ownership illusions in virtual reality to produce changes in one's own body representation, especially in body size estimation. However, less information is available about changes in subjective body attitudes. This study assesses whether owning a female virtual avatar with different body sizes produces changes in body image distortion and body image dissatisfaction in women.

Method: Forty female college students were exposed to an immersive virtual environment, in which they were sequentially embodied in three avatars using synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation. The first and third avatar had the same body size as the participant, but the second avatar had a larger body size. In the larger avatar condition, the group was divided: 20 participants owned a virtual body 20% larger and the other twenty a virtual body 40% larger. Body image distortion and body image dissatisfaction were assessed before and after embodiment in each of the three avatars using a silhouette test.

Results: Mixed between-within analyses of variance showed a statistically significant effect of the variable Time (four assessment points) on body image distortion (F (3, 38) =2.825, p=.042, η2 = 0.069) and body image dissatisfaction (F (3, 38) =6.933, p<.001, η2 = 0.154). The effect of the variable Group (20% increase versus 40% increase in the larger body size avatar) and the interaction between time and group were not statistically significant. Overall, participants reported a reduction in the body image overestimation after owning the same-size avatar for the second time (M=8.88, SD=12.48) than at the other assessment points (at pre-test: M=13.00, SD=17.09; after owning the first same-size virtual body: M=13.75, SD=11.14; and the larger-size avatar: M=14.50, SD=15.18). As regards body image dissatisfaction the highest levels were recorded at pre-test (M=16.38, SD=18.54) and after owning the larger-size avatar (M=15.50, SD=19.57) and lowest levels after owning the same-size avatar for the second time (M=6.88, SD=13.85). More interestingly, the reduction in body dissatisfaction after owning the same-size avatar for the second time compared with pre-test was statistically significant (F (1, 38) =18.098, p<.001, η2 = 0.323).

Conclusion: This study extends the evidence available about the ability of full virtual body ownership illusions to modify the mental representation of one’s own body. Owning a virtual body with different body sizes produces changes not only in size overestimation but also in body dissatisfaction; and, most importantly, inducing the ownership illusion of a larger-size virtual body reduces body dissatisfaction when subjects return to the same-size avatar, probably due to a comparison effect.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Body dissatisfaction (BD) may be defined as the discrepancy between the estimation of the person’s own body and the estimation of the person’s ideal body. It has been identified as a risk and maintenance factor for eating disorders. Several methods have been developed to assess distortions in the person’s body experience (e.g., the presentation of avatars or silhouettes on a computer screen in 2D), which have shown reliability and validity to evaluate aspects related to BD. However, these methods have limitations: 1) they present a small number of figures with clear differences in terms of Body Mass Index (BMI), allowing the possibility of choosing a figure by deduction; 2) they present drawn figures that contain few details or modified photographs in 2D, that difficulty the projection of oneself into these figures; or 3) the figures are presented in a third person perspective. These limitations may be overcome using Virtual Reality (VR), which allows the presentation of more realistic 3D figures that represent the person's body and the possibility of presenting the avatar in the first person. The Allocentric Lock Theory (Riva, 2014) has emphasized the importance of analysing two spatial perspectives of the body (egocentric: first perspective and allocentric: third perspective), as the disturbances in the interconnection between both perspectives may be responsible of the BD in anorexia nervosa.

Objective: The objective of this study is to validate a new VR task that allow the presentations of 3D figures in egocentric and allocentric perspective in order to assess the BD.

Method: A total of 30 women has been estimated to be included in this within-subjects design. The eligibility criteria for the present study are: (1) age between 14 -35 years old; (2) BMI between 18.5-24.9; and (3) having normal or corrected-to-normal vision. The exclusion criteria are: (1) being currently under psychological treatment; (2) having a clinical history of eating disorders; or (3) being pregnant. Firstly, participants have to answer self-report measures related to BD (BSQ; Cooper et al., 1987 and BES; Franzoi and Shields, 1984) and eating disorders pathology (EAT-26; Garner et al., 1982 and EDI-3; Garner, 2004). Secondly, participants have to perform two VR tasks that consist in seeing 19 female bodies with BMIs ranging from 12.5 to 30.5, presented randomly in two blocks: egocentric and allocentric perspective. In the first task, participants have to indicate whether the 3D figure is thinner or fatter than their own body (estimation of the person’s own body); and in the second task, participants have to indicate whether the 3D figure is thinner or fatter than their ideal body (estimation of the person’s ideal body).

Results: This work is in progress, but it is expected to find significant positive Pearson’s correlations between the body dissatisfaction score -obtained by the subtraction of the “estimation person’s ideal” from the “estimation of the person’s own body”- and BSQ and BES, both in egocentric and allocentric perspectives. Moreover, it is expected to find positive correlations between the body dissatisfaction score and EAT-26 and EDI-3, in both perspectives. Finally, it is expected to find a significant positive correlation between the body dissatisfaction scores estimated in egocentric and allocentric perspectives.

Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first validation of a VR task designed to assess body dissatisfaction in egocentric and allocentric perspectives. This system overcome several limitations of the current methods that assess body distortions, but also permits the presentation of the bodies in the first person perspective. Future studies should explore the potentialities of using this VR task in the assessment and treatment of body disturbances in the clinical practice.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Eating Disorder (ED) patients selectively attend to appearance cues in preference to other information, in a phenomenon known as Attentional Bias (AB). The over-evaluation of shape and weight is a core symptom shared by all ED sub-types. Virtual reality (VR) and the illusion of full ownership over a virtual body have been successfully used to assess and reduce body anxiety and body image disturbances in eating disorder (ED) patients and non-clinical participants. The latest VR Head Mounted Displays (HMD) offer the chance to include Eye-Tracking (ET) devices, and thus provide more objective measures of gaze behaviors towards specific body parts. This study aims to combine VR and ET technologies and use VR scenarios while measuring real-time attention patterns. Specifically, we assess gender differences in eye-gaze behaviors towards specific weight-related or non-weight related body parts when participants own a virtual avatar with different body sizes. Method: Thirty-five college students (25 women and 10 men) were exposed to an immersive virtual environment in which they were embodied in three avatars with different body sizes: first, one with the same body size as the participant; second, one larger than the participant; and finally, repetition of the avatar with the same body size as the participant. To analyze the gaze data Weight-related Areas of Interest (W-AOIs) and Non-Weight related Areas of Interest (NW-AOIs) were defined. Fixation points and complete fixation time on each AOI were recorded at the three different assessment times. Raw data from the Pupil Labs eye tracking add-on for the HTC-Vive headset were subsequently transformed into percentages for further analysis. Results: Mixed between (Gender)-within (Time) analyses of variance showed a non-statistically significant interaction between gender and time (F (2.66) =1,317, p= .275, η2 = 0.038) and a non-statistically significant difference in fixation points and complete fixation times (p>.05), over the three assessment times. However, a statistically significant gender difference was found in fixation points (F (1.33) =10,030, p= .003, η2 = 0.233) and complete fixation time (F (1.33) =13,017, p= .001, η2 = 0.283). Overall, women reported significantly higher levels of fixation points and complete fixation times in W-AOIs than men. Women showed an increasing gaze pattern towards W-AOIs at the three different assessment times, while men showed an opposite gaze pattern towards NW-AOIs at the three different times. Interestingly, the greatest differences between men and women were found at the third assessment, when they once again owned an avatar with the same body size as themselves. Conclusion: This study provides useful information about gender differences in gaze pattern behaviors while participants owned a virtual avatar with different body sizes. To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare gaze pattern behaviors between women and men using VR-based embodiment techniques and ET attentional bias assessment. The use of both technologies opens up a promising new area in the assessment or treatment of Eating Disorders and body image disturbances.

ABSTRACT. The aim of our research was to examine the validity of both the female and male versions of IECR comparing the performance of scores on the Immersive And Embodied Cyberbody Rating Scale with the performance of standard paper questionnaire. Agreement between virtual environment and paper questionnaire was first assessed using the Intra-class correlation (ICC). Construct validity was then assessed by correlating Dissatisfaction score with the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) and the Social and Physical Anxiety scale (SPAS) as well as the Body Mass Index (BMI) using the Pearson correlation. The 68 participants (55 females and 13 males with 23.2 years mean age) experimented three balanced conditions: paper questionnaire (C1), virtual reality using a third-person perspective (C2), and virtual reality using a first-person perspective (C3). Participants were immersed in virtual environments with an HP wx4600 workstation (3 GHz, 3.48 GB RAM, ASUS GeForce 8800GTX graphics card), a Vuzix HMD and an Intersense Cube3. A continuum of seven silhouettes was used to measure Body dissatisfaction. Participants were asked to choose a silhouette representing how they currently view themselves (actual) and then one representing the silhouette they would like to look like (ideal). Body dissatisfaction being the difference between the two responses (ideal minus actual). Female participants were presented with the female version of Immersive And Embodied Cyberbody Rating Scale and male participants were administered the male version. While the agreement between VR mode and paper were moderate (ICC between 0,84 and 0.56) for the perceived actual body score, the agreement for the perceived ideal body score was lower (ICC around 0.28). Third person VR mode shows higher agreement (ICC 0.632 on Body Dissatisfaction score) with paper questionnaire than first person VR mode (ICC of 0.405). It should be noted that agreement between the two VR modes is relatively low with an ICC of 0.435 on the Body Dissatisfaction score. As expected, BMI present significant positive correlation with Body Dissatisfaction score on the paper mode and third person VR mode but the correlation was not significant for the first person VR mode. While Eating Disorder Inventory scores shows no significant correlation with any of the three conditions, Social and Physical Anxiety Scale present positive significant correlation with the three modes. The results suggest the Body Dissatisfaction Scale via Immersive And Embodied Cyberbody Rating Scale in third person VR mode exhibit good construct validity while the administration of the first person VR mode doesn’t produce similar results. The top view in the first person mode displayed mostly the arms, breasts, waist and feetwolf the avatar only allow to measure a partial component of body image which helped the participant being more aware of their body image distortion and their difficulties to define what would be an appropriate silhouette for them. Futures studies specifically would focus on perceived actual body and perceived ideal body between different VR modes (1st or 3th person) in intervention perspective.

ABSTRACT. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are among the most common chronic diseases in adolescents and young adults aged between 15 to 20 years old (Garner, 2004). These eating disorders (ED) have mortality rates from up to 21% (Huas, 2013), making ED one of the deadliest mental health diseases (Fichter, Quadflieg, & Hedlund, 2008). Among inappropriate compensatory behaviors as vomiting or laxative abuse used by patients, excessive physical exercise (EPE) is very worrisome for the medical team. Named “exerciser”, these patients who present a large quantity of EPE and who have a compulsion to exercise have poorer prognosis than non-exerciser patients (Stiles-Shields, DclinPsy, Lock, & Le Grange, 2015). These patients identify themselves very strongly both as "exerciser" and as anorexic or bulimic. This double identity issue highlights the need to study body image as a key construct. If other inappropriate compensatory behaviours are well controlled during hospitalization, EPE is not cared directly during the treatments because there is a lack of empirical knowledge about this behavior. Among reasons to explain this lack, we can underlying unsuitable psychometric tools that not adequately measures perceptual and affective body image dimensions. A psychometric tool that measures these dimensions in a similar context than in vivo is needed.

This study aims to qualify the nature of the links between EPE and body image in ED patients. The sample of this cross-sectional study is composed by patients aged between 12 and 26 years engaged in an intervention program at Clinique des troubles alimentaires at Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (Pauzé et al., 2000) or at Programme d’intervention des troubles du comportement alimentaire at Loricorps of Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. An Immersive and Embodied Cyberbody Rating Scale (In preparation, Monthuy-Blanc et al., 2018), Physical Self-Inventory (Maïano et al., 2008) and Compulsive exercise and Quantity of exercise subscales of Exercise and eating disorder (Danielson et al., 2014) are used to measure the variables. During evaluation phase of treatment (first three month), participants are immersed in virtual environments with an MSI GT72 6QE Dominator Pro G laptop [512 GB HDD, Latest 6th Gen, Intel® Core™ i7 processor, GeForce® GTX 980M graphics card, 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080), G-SYNC ready with 75Hz] and an Oculus Rift DK2 head mounted display. Preliminary results based on 6 patients indicate that body distorsion is positively and significantly related to quantity of EPE [F(1,4)=12,25, p=0,025]. Quantity of EPE explains 75,4% of body distorsion level. The other variables are not significantly related to quantity of EPE and/or compulsion to exercise.

The simultaneous evaluation of the perceptual and affective dimensions of body image with Cyberbody makes it possible to precisely identify the relation that exists with level of EPE to provide valuable avenues for intervention. More precisely, the results of this study are intended to provide targeted intervention strategies for exerciser patients. During presentation, choice of Immersive and Embodied Cyberbody Rating Scale to measure body image will be explained and the results will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. Background: Virtual reality (VR) is a non-pharmacological method to distract from pain during painful procedures. However, it was never tested in young children with burn injuries undergoing wound care.

Aim: We aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the study process and the use of VR for procedural pain management.

Methods: From June 2016 to January 2017 we recruited children from 2 months to 10 years old with burn injuries requiring a hydrotherapy session in a pediatric university teaching hospital in Montreal. Each child received the projector-based VR intervention in addition to the standard pharmacological treatment. Data on intervention and study feasibility and acceptability in addition to measures on pain (FLACC), baseline (Modified Smith Scale) and procedural (PBCL) anxiety, comfort (OCCEB-BECCO), and sedation (Ramsay Sedation Scale) were collected before, during, and after the procedure. Data analyses included descriptive and non-parametric inferential statistics.

Results: We recruited 15 children with a mean age of 2.2 ± 2.1 years and mean TBSA (Total Body Surface Area) of 5% (±4). Mean pain score during the procedure was low (2.9/10, ±3), as was the discomfort level (2.9/10, ±2.8). Most children were cooperative, oriented, and calm. Assessing anxiety was not feasible with our sample of participants. The prototype did not interfere with the procedure and was considered useful for procedural pain management by most healthcare professionals.

Conclusions: The projector-based VR is a feasible and acceptable intervention for procedural pain management in young children with burn injuries. A larger trial with a control group is required to assess its efficacy.

ABSTRACT. Introduction/Problem: In 2012-2013, more than two million children visit-ed an emergency department in Canada. Venipuncture and intravenous placement are necessary components of the treatment of children in the emergency department. However, these medical procedures often provoke anxiety and distress in children, and needle insertion continues to be fright-ening for most of them. In paediatric departments, Child Life interventions, present in more than 400 children’s hospitals in North America, are con-sidered to be the gold standard in non-medical pain management tech-niques. Virtual reality has also been identified as an effective tool for pain distraction in children undergoing painful medical procedures. The aim of this study was to document the efficacy of VR as a mode of distraction dur-ing a medical procedure compared to two conditions: watching television (TV, minimal control condition) and distraction provided by the Child Life (CL, gold standard control condition) program. We hypothesized that par-ticipants in the VR condition and in the standard distraction Child Life con-dition (CL) will experience less fear of pain and pain intensity during the procedure than participants in the minimal distraction condition (TV). Method/Tools. A total of 59 children aged 8-17 (35% female) were recruit-ed through the emergency department of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Eligible volunteers were awaiting needle-related procedures (blood work, IV placement, or both) for a pending or known diagnostic. They were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions: minimal distraction con-dition (TV, n = 24), standard care condition (CL, n = 15), or a VR condition (VR, n = 20). The key outcome measures were Visual Analogue Scale rat-ings of pain intensity and fear of pain, administrated prior to and right after the procedure. Patient satisfaction was also measured after the intervention. The VR intervention consisted of an immersive game developed by the UQO Cyberpsychology Lab. The virtual environment featured a two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room and bathroom. The children wore Vuzix Wrap 920 HMD and were asked to explore the environment and then to shoot the flies flying around the apartment. Results. Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted with the two VAS measures (fear of pain and pain intensity). A significant reduction in fear of pain and pain in-tensity were reported in all three conditions. Repeated interaction contrast between VR and paired comparison conditions was statistically significant (t = 2.07, p < .05), as was the comparison between the analgesic impact of VR and TV (t = 2.77, p < .001). The interaction was not significant for the pain intensity ratings. The ANOVA comparing the three conditions showed a significant difference in satisfaction in the children’s ratings [F(2,59) = 6.01, p < .01] but not in the parent’s ratings [F(2,50) = 2.68, p = .08]. A post hoc Tuckey test revealed the children’s satisfaction was significantly higher at p < .05 for both VR and CL compared to TV. The difference between VR and CL was not significant. The advantages of using VR in the emergency de-partment to manage pain in children are discussed.

ABSTRACT. INTRODUCTION Today in France 1/3 of the population suffers from anxiety and 20% of French people suffer from chronic conditions/pain. Many health situations and pathologies generate painful or anxiety-inducing care. The impact of solutions to relieve patients is often limited and more and more studies have proved the benefits of virtual reality to improve patient care with no side-effect nor medicine-related illness.

METHOD In 2011, after her experience as a patient relative, Mélanie Péron created l’Effet Papillon, a social enterprise which aims to improve quality of life owing to non-drug therapies. Among the solutions provided by l’Effet Papillon, you can find Bliss, a relaxing virtual reality application. After an eight-year development for and with patients, in partnership with doctors, researchers and virtual reality specialists, the application aims to meet two specific objectives: analgesia and anxiolysis. Bliss is currently being assessed in two clinical studies: in hematology with Doctor Le Dû - osteo-bone marrow biopsies - REVEH, a phase III clinical study -Bliss versus MEOPA- and in senology with Doctor Bourgeois -micro and macro breast biopsies- SONGES, a phase II clinical study. Bliss is also common practice in painful or anxiety-inducing procedures such as punctures (ascites, pleural, lumbar, breast), osteomedullary and bone-marrow biopsies (myelograms), skin biopsies and complex dressings. With hindsight after these several months of common use, we realize the need for mobilization, awareness and training of healthcare teams to implement an innovation such as Bliss. Virtual reality being dedicated to healthcare is quite new in France and requires the support of healthcare teams in order to offer it to patients during painful or anxiety-inducing procedures. Any caregiver who does not support this kind of innovation -for whatever reason- will not propose it to patients. Therefore those patients will not benefit from it. Conversely, any caregiver who is satisfied with the solution will propose and explain it to patients. These well-informed patients will decide whether they wish to benefit from it. During 4 months, we are going to assess Bliss use on all the procedures performed on outpatients. The patient-caregiver-doctor team will be assessed through a specific self-assessment questionnaire to define the key criteria in Bliss use. RESULTS Up to now, the patients who have benefitted from it routinely during their bone marrow aspirations and biopsies show a satisfaction rate between 7.5 and 10 on a 10-point scale and would like to benefit from it again for potential future examinations. A few patient testimonies help us understand: “I was completely elsewhere, I forgot what was really happening” “I felt like I was in a bubble” “With Bliss, I barely felt anything” “Each time I use Bliss, my muscles, which are usually very painful, relax after 10 minutes and are much less tense” “We get immersed in a universe that makes us forget our body and our pain.” During this congress, we will present the preliminary results from REVEH and SONGES studies, as well as the acceptability study carried out in the four major healthcare facilities where Bliss is used on a daily basis.

CONCLUSION A virtual reality application such as Bliss is a new approach to healthcare which deserves support from caregivers, doctors and patients in order to optimize this change. An assessment of virtual reality used in current practice may allow to identify its impediments in order to lift them and provide patients with an optimal use of virtual reality.

ABSTRACT. Introduction/Problem: Perinatal death is a tragic experience for parents which occurs during pregnancy or shortly after birth. In Canada, perinatal mortality affect approximatively 11 000 families each year. Among most common needs expressed by grieving parents (e.g. active listening and ex-pression of their pain, etc.), the quality of support offered by health professionals during this painful period is essential. A promising tool to facilitate expression and treatment of grief is the use of EMMA World. This virtual environment was developed as a tool to treat various psychological disorders such has PTSD, adjustment disorders or pathological grief. To our knowledge, no study has been published on its use for spouses suffering from the loss of their unborn child. Documenting the potential of this technology and how it is accepted by both spouses engaged in group counselling in hospitals is a prerequisite to a broader dissemination of this tool. Also, EMMA World has been used with people suffering from adjustment disorder in previous studies, but with samples composed of participants with a variety of stressors instead of only one common stressor for all participants. Aim. The goal of this study is to document the potential of using EMMA World with spouses who experienced perinatal mortality and are receiving group counselling. Method/Tools. Five woman aged between 30 and 37 years old participated in this study and were accompanied by their spouse. Average number of weeks of pregnancy was 27.20. It was a first pregnancy for three of them. Participants were assessed using ADIS-IV semi-structured interview and questionnaires to confirm their eligibility. EMMA World was used in three weekly sessions of two hours focused on: 1) collect information about the loss and psychoeducation; 2) elaboration of meaning of loss and assimilation of acceptance techniques; 3) immersion in EMMA virtual reality world featuring different landscapes and symbolic support personalized to each participant (e.g. personal pictures, sounds or videos) to facilitate expression of emotions and thoughts, acceptation of the painful event. A trained psychotherapist conducted the intervention and the immersions with EMMA World. Validated measures of depression, anxiety and grief were taken at pre, post and 3-month follow up, and qualitative impressions from the participants was collected. Results. Given the sample size and lack of control condition, only descriptive statistics are reported. Improvement was observed on all participants, as documented by the Clinician Global Index of severity, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Edinburg Post-natal Depression Scale, the Perinatal Grief Scale and the Complicated Bereavement Scale. All participants were satisfied with their experience using EMMA World, as documented by the Client Satisfaction Scale and the qualitative impressions reported to a co-investigator (not the therapist). Discussion. Results are discussed with guidelines to implement this technology in a hospital program conducted by trained nurses.

ABSTRACT. Numerous studies have shown that cognitive training can improve cognition in healthy older adults and in persons with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease. However, whether those effects transfer beyond the trained task remains a critical and challenging issue in the field of training. The ultimate goal of cognitive training is that the benefits from training generalize to real-life setting and improve the ability to perform daily life activities. One promising avenue is to use virtual reality to enrich cognitive training with realistic daily living environments and to develop tasks that are close to day life activities in order to improve the efficacy of training and transfer effects in real-life. In this symposium, five speakers will present results from studies using virtual reality to train cognitive abilities and assess cognitive training. They will discuss the advantages and the limits to use virtual reality into training and the challenge to create standardized tasks that reproduce near-realistic situations of daily living and that can be used for training or to measure transfer. Names of the five speakers and titles of their presentations are as follows: - 1. Sylvie Belleville. Virtual reality as a new approach to measure the effect of cognitive training on real-life cognition in aging. - 2. Nick Corriveau-Lecavalier. Validation of an immersive virtual reality task assessing episodic memory in older adults. - 3. Arnaud Boujut. Using a virtual car ride task to assess the transfer associated with cognitive training in older adults: Validation and design for cognitive interventions in updating and inhibition. - 4. Frédéric Banville. Using the Virtual Multitasking Test to assess the realization of intentions: a preliminary psychometric study - 5. Jenel Brûlé. Design and validation of a Virtual Reality Working Memory Training Program (VR-WORK-M): A new tool to improve Working Memory impairment following concussion.

ABSTRACT. Virtual reality (VR) could be a promising tool for cognitive assessment and intervention. It offers the opportunity to create an ecological environment that is closer to everyday demands and that therefore may better reflect cognitive functioning than tasks traditionally used in clinical and research contexts. VR may be particularly useful to measure memory in older adults, as this cognitive function declines with age and is one of the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The goal of this study was to assess the feasibility and validity of the Virtual Shop, a fully immersive 3D VR task designed to measure episodic memory by simulating a shopping task in a small convenience store. Fifty-seven older and 20 younger adults were immersed in the Virtual Shop where they were asked to encode a shopping list of 12 familiar objects and retrieve them among semantically-related distractors by walking through the virtual environment. Part 1 addressed its applicability by measuring how participants responded (initiation time, time to complete the task, number of correct responses, errors, and objects selected and validated), and by measuring the sense of presence, the level of motivation evoked by the virtual environment vs. a traditional episodic memory task, and the occurrence and magnitude of cybersickness symptoms following immersion. Part 2 addressed its construct validity by measuring whether performance in the VR task correlated with performance on traditional measures of episodic memory (RL/RI-16; experimental immediate and delayed recall word-list recall), and whether the VR task was sensitive to the typical age-related effect on memory. Part 3 measured ecological validity by assessing whether performance in the VR task and performance on a traditional memory test correlated with scores on a self-reported questionnaire assessing memory performance in real-life shopping (MMQ-shopping score). Part 1 indicated that the rate of correct responses was well distributed with no evidence of a ceiling effect. Participants reported a high level of presence in the virtual environment. A higher level of motivation was found for the VR than for the traditional task, and negligible cybersickness symptoms occurred following immersion for both age groups. In Part 2, we found that VR memory performance is positively correlated with performance on traditional episodic memory tasks. Furthermore, older adults showed lower memory performance than younger ones on both the VR and traditional memory tasks. Finally, Part 3 indicated that performance on the VR task was negatively correlated with the degree of complaint reported on the MMQ-shopping score but that this was not the case for the traditional memory test. In summary, the study indicates that using VR is feasible in older adults, that the Virtual Shop is a valid measure of episodic memory and that it reflects everyday memory performance. Thus, VR has potential as an engaging tool to assess cognition in realistic conditions and the Virtual Shop could be a sensitive tool to reflect real-life memory in older adults. Future studies will be necessary to assess whether the task could be used to assess memory in more vulnerable or impaired populations such as those with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease.

ABSTRACT. Cognitive training improves cognition in older adults and thus has tremendous potential to promote autonomy and quality of life. The ultimate goal of cognitive training is to induce context transfer, i.e., improve real-life cognitive abilities. Unfortunately, while cognitive training improves performance on experimental tasks that are close to those practiced during the training sessions (i.e., proximal outcomes), most studies fail to observe generalization effects in real-life situations. One major challenge is that real-life transfer is most often measured with self-reported questionnaires where participants are asked to judge their ability to carry out complex activities of daily life. These questionnaires are subjective and influenced by metacognition, expectancy and mood. In this context, virtual reality has great appeal, as it can be used to design simulations, environments and scenarios that reproduce the complexity of tasks of everyday life while allowing objective performance measurement in a safe learning environment. We will present two studies that rely on virtual reality to measure cognitive training transfer in simulations that reproduce real-life cognition. Study 1 examines the effect of attentional training in 30 healthy older adults and 30 younger adults. A traditional divided attention task was used as a proximal outcome measure. Transfer to real life was measured with a self-reported attention questionnaire and in a Virtual car ride where participants detected road signs to guide the driver while completing a verbal working memory task. Training improved performance on the proximal outcome measure and transfer was found on the Virtual car ride but not on the self-reported questionnaire. Study 2 uses strategic memory training in 40 older adults with a subjective memory complaint and examines its effect on traditional word-list learning as a proximal outcome. Transfer was measured with a self-reported memory questionnaire (ability subscale), the Virtual car ride in which participants detected road signs to guide the driver while completing word-list learning, and with the Virtual shop, where participants were presented with a shopping list of items they were asked to memorize and find in a small convenience store. Strategic memory training improved performance on the proximal outcome test. Transfer was found on the virtual reality measures but not on the ability subscale of the self-reported questionnaire. Overall, results indicate that targeted cognitive training programs can be used to improve cognition in older adults and that the positive effect of cognitive training can transfer to complex simulation tasks that reproduce real-life cognition. Both studies indicate that virtual reality measures are more sensitive to training than self-reported questionnaires. Thus, virtual reality has considerable potential as a measure of real-life cognition and can be used to provide sensitive measures of cognitive training transfer.

ABSTRACT. Transferring benefits from cognitive training to everyday activities is a central issue for cognitive interventions. Immersive virtual reality (VR) can be used to provide a more ecological way than traditional cognitive tests to assess whether a cognitive intervention promotes transfer effects. The first objective here is to examine the validity and the convenience of using a virtual car ride to assess working memory improvements in healthy older adults following a cognitive intervention. The developed VR task is an immersive dual-task situation that could occur while being a passenger in a car. It involves (1) the detection of a visual road sign to guide the driver and (2) performing a concurrent verbal memory task. Comparisons between older and young adults provide an estimation of how sensitive the task is to aging under focused and divided attention. Correlations are calculated between the VR task performances and those from traditional memory tasks (i.e., Span task and Logical memory test) and from a working memory task (i.e., Reading Span), which combines similar outcomes (i.e., speed for semantic judgment and memory accuracy). A presence questionnaire (Witmer, Jerome & Singer, 2005) is also used to estimate the overall immersiveness of the task. The validation of this VR task aims to support our second objective, which is to compare the benefits associated with updating and inhibition interventions that are currently in progress. Previous work has shown that updating and inhibition are based on distinct brain networks, are modified by aging, and are sensitive to differences in cognitive lifestyle. In this study, we examine the correspondence between the cognitive profiles of the elderly, the training dose administered and the transfer of benefits associated with specialized training in updating or inhibition. The effects of these interventions are compared to a control intervention (general knowledge) over 12 training sessions. Cognitive evaluations (PRE-MID-POST) and transfer measures at different time points (session 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12) are compared to those of young adults without intervention. We examine whether updating and inhibition interventions modify the target cognitive function and transfer to the virtual reality dual-tasking scenario.

ABSTRACT. Background: Prospective Memory (PM) is represented by the management of a set of cognitive functions responsible for our ability to remember to carry out an intended action at a specific time in the future. Some researchers have shown that aging participants, particularly those with Alzheimer's disease (AD), have lower performance in prospective memory tasks compared to control subjects. Therefore, PM is a cognitive function sensitive to aging and a generally altered cognitive function in individuals with AD. Since many everyday life activities require good PM abilities, it is important to measure them in an ecological way. For this, the virtual reality (VR) technology seems to reproduce adequately day-to-day living in a realistic way. Objective: The principal aim of this presentation is to, show the preliminary psychometric data of the Virtual Multitasking Test (VMT) obtained on a young and healthy adults sample. The Virtual Multitasking Test was created to assess PM and executive functions in an ecological manner. Method: In this study, 50 young and healthy participants were recruited on a voluntary basis. After having administered a set of neuropsychological assessment to test PM in a traditional way, participants were immersed in the virtual environment. Specifically, in the VMT, participants need to prepare a meal for supper and put required items (for the recipe) near the oven while they store groceries on the counter as fast as possible. Participants must also set the table for two during the task. The virtual environment provides interruptions or unplanned events to assess how the subject reorganize or prioritize his/her action. Multiple steps were taken to ensure the good face value of the PM tasks in the VMT. Firstly, a review of the literature was performed to ensure the apparent validity of the task. Secondly, we consulted a group of experts in the field of PM to get some advice on the scoring system. Thirdly, we scripted the ongoing task to be able to have a standardized rating system. Fourthly, we have developed a rating system for PM tasks based on our review of the literature. Results: The VMT appear to be a valid and reliable measure of prospective memory. The PM tasks implanted in the VMT are interesting due to the presence of complex tasks that evaluate both PM and participants' adaptation during unexpected events. Conclusions: In our previous work, we found that healthy elderly people, compared to younger, are slower, present more cybersickness and don’t navigate as well in the virtual environment especially when they wear a head-mounted display. Therefore, it will be essential to isolate variables that are age specific and those specific to the use of technology to have a really good ecological assessment on prospective memory.

ABSTRACT. Background. Working memory (WM) is a limited capacity system that allows the temporary storage and manipulation of information. Several studies have shown that 30% of patients who have suffered from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion continue to have WM difficulties and post-concussion symptoms three months after the incident (Niogi & Mukherjee, 2010). Objective. The aim of the study is to develop and validate a new working memory rehabilitation program in virtual reality for individuals affected by mTBI. The main advantage of using virtual reality with this population is the ability to make the environment as realistic as possible. Method. Participants. 20 healthy controls will be recruited to validate the protocol and the levels of complexity, and three patients with mTBI will be recruited to test the use of this protocol with a clinical population. Training protocol. The Virtual Working Memory Training Program (VR-WORK-M) recreates the environment of a restaurant where the participants must complete a WM task, which consists of the recreation of a series of items heard in the headphones. The objective is to simulate a business presentation. The complexity of the task is increased by adding subtasks (1 vs. 2) and distractions (1 vs. 2 vs. 3) during the WM task. Three lists of increasing difficulty add another level of complexity to the program. In total, there are 36 levels, which allows the participant to progress at their own rhythm. There will be 16 sessions, occurring 5 times per week with 1 additional session. The validation of this program is currently underway.

ABSTRACT. The study aims to contribute to the discussion toward the role of personality traits in online behavior. The relationship between specific communication activity and the intentions of users to foster social connections is the main focus of current research. Considering the social networking sites (SNS) as a useful tools for social networking, it is important to clarify what type of social skills may influence social interaction and affect the social capital of individuals. In this vein, it is examined how propensity to make connections with others (PCO) as well as self-esteem and subjective well-being of users are associated with several communication strategies of SNS users. The study focuses on SNS users from typical Russian city Vologda, which are registered at the most popular SNS in Russia – Vkontakte.ru. The data on personality characteristics and communication activity from 375 respondents was obtained during online survey. Participants were asked to evaluate the likelihood to engage into several communication practices in SNS, which are considered to be related to social capital growth: relationship maintenance, initiating of new relationships, maintaining existing connections, social seeking, broadcasting, activity in online communities and commenting of online friends’ posts (Ellison et al. 2011;Ellison et al. 2014, Burke et al.2014, boyd et al., 2007). The scale of P. Totterdell was used to measure the propensity of users to make connections with friends and acquaintances as well as the propensity to join people. The scale allows to grasp what type of social ties is primary important for users. Two items of Rosenberg scale were used to evaluate the self-esteem of respondents. In addition, participants were asked to esteem the level of their psychological well-being. The main results are following: communicative activity reflects the intention of users to develop the social connections through social networks. The desire to expand the social network turns out to be one of the strongest predictor of communication activity of users in the models. Relationship maintenance – response to online friends’ public help requests – is guided by the overall intention of developing social ties. Propensity to make connections with friends and acquaintances turns out to be significant predictor of online activity related to maintenance of existing social ties, as well as seeking for new connections. It turns out that men are more inclined to searching for new social ties online. The intention to learn new information by browsing the profile and updates of people with whom person has already offline connection, i.e. social-seeking, is associated with developing of weak ties rather than with deepening existing social bonds. In the opposite, broadcasting of personal information on personal page is addressed directly to friends. The activity in online communities is related to the inclination to “bridge” people, connect them to each other. By commenting of friends’ public posts users aim to foster friendship as well as become visible to the friends of friend. As to relationship between online activity and self-esteem, it is found out that self-esteem is negatively associated with broadcasting and positively both with maintenance of existing connections and activity in online communities. Responding on friends help requests is more likely for users with greater subjective well-being. To sum up, the intention to develop social connections underlies the communication practicies which are related to the social capital growth. The analysis of mediation role of propensity to make connections in the relationship between online activity and social capital fostering in online social networking sites is the focus of further research.

ABSTRACT. Introduction/problem This contribution presents a Ph.D. research project that tries to explain the use of the Internet during the life cycle (adolescents, younger and older emerging adults, adults). The goal is to clarify when, how and under which conditions the Internet usage is functional for people. Starting from Leont'ev studies (1974, 1978, 1981) and according to Kaptelinin (1996a, 1996b) it is possible to consider the Internet as a functional organ. A functional organ can be defined as the integration between a technological artefact (e.g. Internet) and a human ability (e.g. creating relations) that allows people to obtain better and more powerful performance that are not obtainable individually without that tool (e.g. sharing photos with more people in different parts of the world at the same time) or compensate his/her lack (as for maintaining social relations with family and friends during residential displacements for university or work). Indeed, the research explores which factors (Gender, Hours per day spent Online, Online Social-Support, Number of Online Contacts (NOCs), Life Satisfaction, Job Satisfaction) lead people to a Functional Internet Use (FIU).

Method/Tools The participants are 2.130, divided in: 574 adolescents, 671 younger emerging adults, 163 older emerging adults, 722 adults. Three hypotheses were tested, by means of Correlations, ANOVA and Heyes models (2015; 2017): H1) The hours per day spent online affect FIU, through the moderation of gender and Age; H2) Online-social-support affect FIU through the mediation of NOCs, H3) Job satisfaction affect FIU through the mediation of life satisfaction and the moderation of age and gender. A cross-sectional study based on the compilation of an online self-report questionnaire was proposed. The questionnaire’s distribution took place at three different times (corresponding to the three academic years of Ph.D.). Campaigns were broadcast on SNSs (Facebook, YouTube, Google +), based on the penetration of SNSs monthly use in Italy and targeted to gender and age considering the selected sample age groups. For the adolescents’ sample the questionnaire was distributed in three High Schools in Italy. For the younger and older emerging adults, the questionnaire was disseminated between university students’. For the adults’ sample, some meetings with the parents of children attending High Schools were organized. The questionnaire’s measures include validated scales for the factors involved in FIU. The scale that measure FIU was made on purpose for this research and is not validated yet.

Results Results show that the more the age increases, the less the hours per day spent online decrease and, consequently, the FIU increases. Females and males as such affect the relation between the hours per day spent online and FIU. Males of all age groups have the highest level of Internet use (considering the hours per day) and they have the higher score of FIU compared to females (of all age groups). Online Social-Support and Job Satisfaction negative affect FIU; while, NOCs and Life Satisfaction positive affect FIU in all age groups.

Conclusions Considering the obtained results, to promote FIU and favor Internet as a functional organ, NOCs seems to play an important role for all age, but specially for the younger and older emerging adults. Since they are facing with many residential changes (e.g. going to university), having many NOCs allow them greater facilitation in finding a home, places of aggregation, etc. Concerning the adolescents, working on online social-support through NOCs could promote FIU; while for the adults, working on their life satisfaction and job satisfaction could lead to FIU.

ABSTRACT. Life satisfaction is an individual's judgment of the standards he or she sets. Life satisfaction can be distorted by side effects. One of the emotions and negative habits that can change the satisfaction of life is the envy and over consumption of information. This study aims to determine the relationship between passive usage and envy with the life satisfaction of users of social networking sites. Three scales, namely the scales of passive usage (α = 0.785) and envy (α = 0,804) developed by researchers and the scale of life satisfaction of Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) with α = 0,767. The result of regression analysis showed passive usage of social media and envy predicting life satisfaction (r = 0,307, R= 0,094). The model shows that envy is strong in predictor of life satisfaction (b = -1,502, t = -6,761, p <0,05). The results of the study also reveal differences in life satisfaction level in terms of the number of updates status in the social media per day (F = 4,317, p <0.05). Participants who update the status of 0-1 times per day have a higher level of life satisfaction compared to participants who passed the status 2-5 times, and more than 5 times per day.

ABSTRACT. Background Facebook user often post alcohol related pictures online (Peluchette & Karl, 2008) with these typically receiving positive feedback from online friends and peers (Beullens & Schepers, 2013) even when they feature intoxicated individuals (Ridout, Campbell, & Ellis, 2012). Despite this, such images can be viewed negatively by those outside timeline owners’ peer group (Jain et al., 2014) and can be detrimental to their employability (Bohnert & Ross, 2010). To better determine why individuals share such images online, despite the knowledge that these could be potentially harmful (Peluchette & Karl, 2008), we investigated how individual differences known to drive alcohol consumption influenced photo posting behaviour. Drinking motives (DMQ-R, Cooper, 1994) are defined as being the basic psychological motivations that underlie an individual’s decision to drink alcohol. According to the Motivational Model of Alcohol Use (Cox and Klinger, 1988) these represent the most proximal predictors of alcohol consumption. This study aimed to investigate how individuals’ drinking motives translated to their disclosure of drinking in the pictures they share on social media. We were also interested to see how this relates to drinking behaviour.

Methods Facebook timeline owners’ Drinking Motives and drinking behaviours were measured, and were investigated in relation to alcohol related photo posting behaviour online. Participants were 282 Facebook timeline owners (170 female; Mage=25.45). 79.8% identified as British and 15.2% as European. They were recruited via adverts on social media and placed around campus, and were not compensated for participation. Participants were asked via open-ended questions how many of their profile pictures featured them with an alcoholic drink or intxicated, either alone or with friends. They were also asked to indicate yes/no whether they shared the same categories of photo, and whether they generally shared photos of themselves (selfies) or themselves with friends. Drinking motived were measured via the DMQ: a 20-item questionnaire containing the sub-scales of Social, Coping, Enhancement, and Conformity motives. Drinking behaviour was measured via the timeline followback questionnaire (Sobell & Sobell, 1992), a diary-style measure of drinking over the previous week.

Results A series of paired-samples t-tests were carried out to determine differences in social, coping, enhancement, and conformity motives between Facebook users who shared (or not) pictures of themselves drinking or being intoxicated alone or with friends, as well as between those who shared general selfies and photos of themselves with friends. All four motives were significantly higher for both selfie sharing, and sharing photos of themselves drinking alcohol alone. Only social and enhancement motives were higher for posting photos with groups of friends. Users who shared photos of themselves intoxicated, and with friends both drinking alcohol and intoxicated, were higher on social, coping, and enhancement motives, but not on conformity motives. Correlations revealed that social all four motives were significantly associated with timeline owners posting profile pictures featuring them of drinking alone or with friends, or being intoxicated alone. Only the social motive was associated with posting pictures of being intoxicated in a group. Additionally, we found that the sharing of any alcohol-related picture was correlated with total weekly alcohol consumption.

Conclusions In terms of motives, there is no difference between users sharing selfies with or without alcohol. This distinction manifests in the sharing of photos of different types of alcohol consumption (use vs. abuse), and the context in which it occurs (alone vs. socially). The conformity motive appears to be least relevant to online disclosures relating to alcohol. Finally, our results build on previous findings (e.g., Westgate et al., 2014) that online disclosures, specifically photo posting, is an accurate reflection of real life drinking.

ABSTRACT. Background: While many pharmacological and psychosocial interventions are available, many treatment-resistant schizophrenia patients continue to suffer from persistent psychotic symptoms, mainly auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH). Recently, a psychological therapy using computerized technology has shown large therapeutic effects on AVH severity by enabling patients to engage in a dialogue with a representation of their distressing voices (Cohen's d=1.0). These very hopeful results have been extended by our team using immersive virtual reality (VR). The results of VR therapy (VRT) in our pilot trial involving 19 schizophrenia patients with refractory AVH were clinically promising for the severity and distress related to hallucinations, illness symptomatology, depressive symptoms and quality of life. Notably, clinical improvements of our pilot remained significant at our 3-month follow-up. Such findings suggest that VRT seems to be a highly promising intervention for refractory AVH. Objective: To further research in this field, the primary goal of this randomized-controlled trial is to show that VRT is superior to a widely utilized psychotherapy, that is Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), for the treatment of persistent AVH in schizophrenia. Our secondary goal is to examine the effects of these interventions on beliefs about voices, illness symptomatology, mood symptoms (anxiety and depression), self-esteem, level of functioning and quality of life. Methods: This is a single-blinded randomized-controlled, single-site parallel study of VRT versus CBT. Each treatment group will include 52 randomized participants (assuming 20% attrition) of over 18 years of age hearing persecutory voices and suffering from treatment resistant schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Diagnoses will be established with the Structured Interview for DSM-5. Patients will be included if they have been hearing persecutor voices that did not respond to ≥2 antipsychotic trials. VRT comprises of 9 weekly sessions: 1 avatar creation session and 8 therapeutic sessions, where the patients are confronted to their reproduced hallucinatory experience and are encouraged to enter in a dialogue with their virtual persecutor. CBT includes 9 weekly sessions consisting of learning modules and task assignments. Subjects will be evaluated at baseline and post-treatment to assess primary (AVH as measured with the Psychotic Symptoms Rating Scale) and secondary outcomes. Mixed Anova analyses will be performed to measure and compare the effects of both interventions. Results: Presently, 37 patients have been recruited and 9 have abandoned the study. Our preliminary results on 28 patients show that there is no significant difference between the treatment conditions for all our measures. As expected, more participants will be required to show the superiority of VRT over CBT. However, when performing separate ANOVA analyses for each condition, VRT shows significant improvements of AVH severity after the treatment (on our primary outcome) contrarily to CBT. VRT also produced significant decreases on the beliefs that voices are omnipotent and malevolent, on psychotic symptomatology, depressive symptoms and an increase on quality of life. CBT obtained no significant improvements. Discussion: While limited by the small number of patients, such findings are nonetheless already supporting the hypothesis of the superiority of VRT on AVH. As expected, a moderate effect is found for our adapted short CBT for psychosis, though not significant at this point. The current trial will contribute to the validation of a novel innovative approach answering a fundamental clinical need.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Inner voice is estimated to occur at least a quarter of people’s conscious waking life. Much research work asserts that inner voice plays various important roles in cognitive functions, such as self-regulation, self-reflection, and so on. Virtual cognitions are a stream of simulated thoughts people can hear while emerged in a virtual reality environment that intend to mimic inner voice and thus simulating the effect of an inner voice. Like virtual environment aims at replicating an environment by artificially creating sensory experiences, virtual cognitions aim at replicating thoughts by artificially creating cognitive experiences. Presenting and manipulating virtual cognitions in learning and training may be a useful intervention method to affect people’s behavior and beliefs. Exposing people to virtual cognitions, presented as an inner voice, requires the simulation of such voice and therefore understanding of the underlying sound parameters. Many researchers believe that there is a relationship between people’s inner and outer voice, even suggest that people’s inner voice resembles the features of their own outer voice. The work presented here, therefore, explored people’s perception of their simulated inner voice by considering several core sound parameters of their outer voice. Methods: Using a specially developed audio recording and modification software tool, 15 participants (11 males, 4 females) set key sound parameters to match their own voice recording with their perception of either their own inner or their outer voice. After reading aloud nine sentences, they modified seven sound parameters of the recordings: pitch, speed, echo, and volume of sound with the frequency band (20-320Hz, 320-1280Hz, 1280-5120Hz, and 5120-20480Hz). Results: The results of multilevel analyses showed participants set the speed, echo and the volume of sound with the frequency band 1280-5120Hz differently when considering inner voice or outer voice, suggesting that people’s sound parameter setting is different when it comes to the type of voice. What is more, the difference in volume perception with the frequency band 1280-5120Hz was consistent across participants. Here, participants set the volume higher for outer voice than inner voice. While, for speed and echo, no consistency across participants was found, consistency was found on an individual level, i.e. an individual using the same speed and echo setting across his or her own nine voice recordings. For example, some participants selected consistently higher speed for their inner voice than outer voice, while others selected consistently the other way around. Conclusion: First, these findings indicate that people’s sound perception is different between inner voice and outer voice. Second, individualization existed when considering the difference between inner and outer voice. For developers who want to simulate inner voice in a virtual environment, these findings suggested that inner voice has its own distinct characteristics compared to an outer voice. The volume setting for the frequency band of 1280-5120Hz can be based on group perception, whereas for speed and echo settings it might require individualization.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) represents a general health concern with important consequences for individuals’ psycho-social functioning. Many studies suggest that cognitive processes such as attentional bias (AB) have important implications in the phases of acquisition, maintenance and relapse precipitation in AUD. AB is described as an implicit selective attention of processing visual information in favor of desired cues, which may elicit craving for alcohol and facilitate drinking-related behaviors. To address the recent need to explore the applications of human-computer interaction in the field of psychology, the current study aimed to assess attentional bias towards alcohol-related images using eye-tracking technology. Specifically, we explored the first gaze towards alcohol-related images versus neutral images in patients with short-term and long-term abstinence. Method: 24 outpatients (Mage = 53, SD = 11.65) from the Addictive Behavior Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona participated in the study. The inclusion criteria were diagnoses of AUD and normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity. Participants were divided according to their abstinence period, with the cut-off point being set at four months. Fourteen patients had been abstinent for less than four months (M = 1, SD = 0.96), and 10 had been abstinent for more than four months (M = 14, SD = 8.17). The self-reported abstinence period was supported by the results of urine analyses performed in all patients. Participants completed the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (M = 19.75, SD = 9.34) and the Visual Attention Task (VAT). The VAT consisted of images related to alcohol consumption versus neutral images such as office objects. To record eye movement activity during the VAT, we used the EyeTribe eye-tracking technology. Results: Our data indicated a statistically significant difference between patients with short-term and long-term abstinence regarding their first fixation towards alcohol-related images and neutral images. Patients abstinent for less than four months had a tendency to look first at images related to alcohol consumption, whereas patients abstinent for more than four months were more likely to look first at neutral images, regardless of their AUDIT score. Conclusions: The results of this study show that patients with short-term abstinence had a greater AB than patients with long-term abstinence. The first gaze seems to be a sensitive parameter for differentiating between patients with low and high AB. The use of eye-tracking technology suggests that AB is important in terms of clinical assessment and should be addressed in treatment as well as in relapse prevention. We consider that the eye-tracking technology is a promising instrument for assessing current addictive behavior.

ABSTRACT. While intense debates focusing on drugs legalization are thriving nowadays and the use of psilocybin mushroom or cannabis for therapeutic purposes is discussed, a legal product namely tobacco is still involved in diverse chronic or lethal diseases among the smoking and non-smoking population. The real challenge lies in the prevention relapse as there are high rates of such an event to occur after smoking cessation (Hatsukami et al., 2008). Still, relapse prevention interventions have been hampered by the difficulty in recreating indoor the conditions associated with tobacco consumption in the daily life of abstinent smokers (such as drinking in bars with friends smoking etc.). These observations are suggesting the need to implement new exposure strategies. Consequently, Virtual reality, a recent immersive media allowing subjects to be exposed and interact in synthesized environments, can help patients to overcome their craving using virtual tobacco related cues. This method has been entitled virtual reality cue exposure (VRCE) and has been recently under examination as a possible alternative instrument to traditional CBT. Even though previous researches have studied VRCE and demonstrated that artificial 3D situations can induced tobacco craving with success or lead to decrease in nicotine addiction (Garcia-Rodriguez et al., 2012, Girard et al., 2009), the efficacy of VREC on relapse prevention has yet to be analyzed. Therefore, the present clinical trial sought to investigate the effect of VRCE on smoking relapse prevention in the context of a comparative study involving VRCE and traditional CBT. 61 tobacco abstinent subjects were recruited so far. They were then randomly assign to two groups: VRCE or CBT. The clinical protocol comprised 8 weekly sessions for both groups during which all participants were taught addiction centered psychoeducation, craving management, relaxation and cognitive restructuring, the only difference between the groups being the smoking related situations exposure procedure. While participants in the CBT group were asked to visualize such conditions, the participants in the VRCE group were immersed in a computerized world using virtual reality equipment. The virtual environments consisted of situations considered to incur high risk of tobacco relapse (Garcia-Rodriguez et al., 2012). They were created using an inexpensive game level editor and were constructed to resemble bars, restaurants, and workplaces (etc.) with smoking avatars. The relapse prevention efficacy was assessed by self-report questionnaires measuring craving as well as tobacco dependence. Other scales captured presence as well as global effects on depression, anxiety, self-esteem and quality of life. Physiological parameters included the measure of the carbon monoxide (CO) exhaled. All instruments were registered before and after the treatment procedure. 37 participants completed the program. The virtual environments generated satisfactory level of presence and craving. Upon finishing the protocol and according to the proportion of CO exhaled, 72% of the participants maintained their tobacco abstinence. Statistical analysis of the results reveals a significant reduction of tobacco craving and dependence for both group. In contrast no significant differences were found regarding the other scales even though an improvement in physical quality of life was observed but was not enough to reach statistical significance at this stage. Group comparison did not lead to any significant interactions for all variables. Although not significant, findings also showed a trend towards a greater in-session craving reduction in the VRCE group. This continuing clinical trial will verify if those tendencies achieve significance. The present clinical trial demonstrated that VRCE is at least as efficient as traditional CBT in terms of maintenance of tobacco abstinence, craving reduction and decrease in nicotine dependence. Improvement in technologies and methodology for future research and applications are delineated.

ABSTRACT. Introduction For conventional sex toys (e.g., vibrators) high prevalence of use (> 50%) and positive impact on sexual well-being are established (Herbenick et al., 2010). However, we don't know much about innovative and upcoming sex technologies (e.g., sex robots). Increasing public and academic interest in sex robots goes hand in hand with a "campaign against sex robots" indicating polarized views on the impact of new sex technologies.

Research Problem Based on the Positive Technology Framework (Riva, Banos, Botella, Wiederhold, & Gaggioli, 2012) and the Positive Sexuality Framework (Williams, Thomas, Prior, & Walters, 2015), this study aimed at documenting the extent to which heterosexual adults in Germany use available innovative sex technologies (e.g., true-to-life sex dolls) and to which degree experienced users report negative and/or positive effects on their sexual well-being and life satisfaction. Additionally, we explored intention to use sex technologies that are not yet available on the mass market (e.g., sex robots).

Method In 2016, we conducted a survey study with a national online sample of N = 1.723 heterosexual adults aged 18 – 69 years residing in Germany. All participants gave informed consent. We measured life-time prevalence for three types of innovative sex technologies (true-to-life sex dolls, sex machines, VR pornography) and intention to use for two upcoming types of sex technologies (virtual sex agents, sex robots) with a dichotomous response format (yes/no). Effects of sex technology use on sexual well-being were measured with two single items for positive/negative effects on sex life respectively (“Using sex technologies had a positive/negative effect on my sex life”; Likert scale response format: 1 = not at all to 7 = to a high degree). Sexual satisfaction was measured by items from the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ; Snell, Fisher, & Walters, 1993), and general life satisfaction with a single item measure. An a-posteriori t-test for dependent samples was computed to identify significant differences between positive and negative effects on sex-life reported by sex technology users, and a-posteriori U-tests were conducted to compare users and non-users of innovative sex technologies regarding their sexual and general life satisfaction.

Results Life-time prevalence of innovative sex technology use was 7 % (n = 117). Sex dolls represented the most popular type, followed by VR pornography, and sex machines.

Users of innovative sex technologies reported mainly positive effects (M = 5.10, SD = 1.26) as opposed to negative effects (M = 2.94, SD = 2.01) on their sex life. The positive effects outranked negative effects with a large effect size (p < .001, d = .98). Users of innovative sex technologies did not differ from non-users regarding sexual satisfaction (p = .595) and general life satisfaction (p = .170).

Intention to use future sex technology revealed considerable prevalence: Within the total sample, 26.5 % indicated that they would try sex with virtual agents, and 13 % (women: 8 %; men: 18 %) would give sex robots a chance.

Conclusion Life-time prevalence of innovative sex technology use was already noticeably high in 2016, and experienced users reported mainly positive effects that outweighed negative effects by far. Additionally, intention to use upcoming sex technologies showed a substantial prevalence. These results support the Positive Technology as well as the Positive Sexuality Framework: innovative sex technologies are adopted because users experience and/or expect mostly positive effects. Future studies should try to complement our self-report findings on sexual well-being with objective measures (e.g., medical assessment of sexual health) and with data from longitudinal studies.

ABSTRACT. Chair: Cristina Botella

Symposium title: Portable devices for assessment and treatment in health settings: Some current developments and challenges

Title of presentations: -An overview of factors associated with adherence and dropout to Ecological Momentary Assessment in depression (Desirée Colombo) - Pain Monitor: How can we use ecological momentary assessment via app to improve the treatment of chronic pain? (Carlos Suso-Ribera) - Portable VR and biofeedback for mental disorders: Scoping review of research results (Javier Fernández-Álvarez) - Understanding Human Behaviour in Daily Life: from Ecological Momentary Assessment to Computational Psychometrics (Pietro Cipresso) Abstracts: Past decades have seen a surge in the number of studies exploring the utility of portable devices, especially smartphones, in healthcare settings. Now, evidence exists for the efficacy and feasibility of mobile health (mHealth) applications for various psychological and medical conditions. Ecological validity is one of the strongest points of portable devices: assessments and interventions can be unobtrusively delivered in real-world contexts and during the flow of daily experiences, thus overcoming the pitfalls of traditional experimental settings. Additionally, repeated measurements, which have regained interest thanks to portable devices, allow us to obtain more reliable and generalizable data. For instance, portable devices can help us capture the dynamics of self-perceived thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, as well as other markers like physiological processes, which are characterized for their elusiveness and oscillation. Last but not least, portable devices can help break barriers of assessment and treatment by facilitating access to individuals with low resources or geographical difficulties. There are a wide range of portable devices that have been used in health settings, including smartphones, watches, or glasses. Thanks to these devices, new interventions for numerous health problems have been developed and proved to be feasible and efficacious. In this symposium, a representative manifestation with several examples of the use of portable devices in the treatment of very diverse health problems will be presented. This will be done with the aim to present the cutting-edge of the current state of portable devices in several health areas as well as to discuss the most relevant challenges. By doing this, we expect to provide some guidance to those who are interested in implementing mHealth in clinical or research settings. The panel will be composed by four presentations. First, the current state of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) for depression will be presented, with a main focus on factors increasing adherence and decreasing patients’ dropout. Next, the utility of ecological momentary assessment using a smartphone app will be discussed in the context of patients with chronic pain. With regard to the psychophysiological realm, an overall overview of the existing portable devices in biofeedback and virtual reality with empirical evidence for the treatment of mental disorders will be presented. Finally, an overview of the application of computational psychometrics to the study of human behaviour will be proposed, focusing on the contemporary use of the experience sampling method and wearable biosensors to record psychophysiological signals.

ABSTRACT. BACKGROUND: Since many years, the clinical psychological field relies on the retrospective monitoring and assessment of symptoms, meeting patients at prefixed time points and in traditional face-to-face sessions. Other than being subjected to the recall bias, this retrospective approach does not allow to capture the dynamic fluctuations that typically characterize many psychological conditions, including depression. In that sense, the use of electronic devices for daily data collection, i.e. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), allows to assess patients during daily life, thus in naturalistic settings and in precise moments of the day. To date, EMA has been broadly adopted for the investigation of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD); however, its application in the clinical practice is still very limited. Among the main issues, no specific guidelines have been developed. Furthermore, no validated set of questionnaires or items specific for EMA have been proposed, thus increasing the heterogeneity between studies and the difficulties in adopting these techniques in the clinical practice. Among all, one of the greater challenges in the development of EMA for depression is represented by compliance. For the intrinsic nature of the disease itself, depressed patients may be less prone to regularly complete daily ratings. Accordingly, the aim of this review is to point out factors that may influence adherence and dropout of depressed patients to EMA protocols, and to underline the desirable EMA features to increase the completion of scheduled assessments. METHODS: A systematic literature search was performed in two bibliographic databases, PubMed and Web of Science, resulting in a total of 13 articles that fully met the criteria. We considered studies adopting EMAs by means of electronic devices on a sample of adult (≥ 18 years old) with a primary diagnosis of MDD, defined by a valid criterion standard. Only studies reporting dropout and compliance rates (i.e. percent of completed surveys across the duration of the study) were included. RESULTS: Based on the retrieved articles, we will first provide a brief general overview of the current state of the art of EMA for depression, with a main focus on dropouts and compliance rates of the selected studies. Subsequently, we will analyse the impact of different variables on adherence, including: Duration of the study, number of prompts per day, sampling method, type of device, mean age of the sample, number of items for each survey, type of questions, and participants’ compensation. DISCUSSION: Despite the high number of studies adopting EMA for the investigation of depression and its underling mechanisms, its application in the daily clinical practice is still very limited. Moreover, no specific protocol or guidelines have been proposed. Accordingly, we will provide important insights into how to develop an EMA for clinically depressed patients in order to increase compliance and reduce dropouts.

ABSTRACT. The way we assess is changing dramatically thanks to information and communication technologies. Ecological momentary assessment is now more accessible, immediate, and ecological than ever, mostly as a result ofthe explosion of smartphones. In health settings, the use of such technologies (mHealth) is increasing in the past years. In the present study we will discuss how Pain Monitor, a smartphone app developed by our team, can improve existent treatments for pain. We have currently conducted two studies with the app. First, we tested its content validity and acceptability with 37 patients with chronic pain attending a tertiary pain unit. Next, we explored the utility of the app in a randomized controlled trial in which the usual assessment method (on site evaluation during medical appointments) was compared against daily telemonitoring using Pain Monitor. In the symposium we will discuss the benefits of using the app in front of the usual treatment, as revealedby both studies. Briefly, these include a rapid detection of undesired events (i.e., side effects of the medication, aberrant use of rescue medication, or non-response to treatment), which has important implications for patient safety and treatment effectiveness. Additionally, the app can also help make treatments more efficient by detecting that an intervention has been effective, thus eliminating the need of an onsite follow-up appointment.

ABSTRACT. BACKGROUND: Affective disorders (AD) and the whole spectrum of mood disorders constitute a leading cause of disability worldwide. Although strenuous efforts have been made, a large body of evidence shows that prevalence rates have not changed in the last two decades but increased. Hence, new strategies should be implemented. Among the vast array of weaknesses that can explain this serious situation, the disarticulation between physiological and psychological measures and the lack of research in real-life contexts must be mentioned. In this sense, the possibility of delivering biofeedback treatments supported by portable devices is a good way to tackle the two aforementioned problems. With the aim of determining the extent to which biofeedback treatments with portables devices in affective disorders have been researched, a systematic review synthetizing the results is presented.

METHODS: Three databases were utilized (PubMed, Scopus and Web of science) to look for potential relevant articles. A combination of the following words were used for the search string: "portable"; "mobile"; "wearable"; "wireless"; "biofeedback"; "depression"; "anxiety"; "borderline personality disorder"; "affective disorder"; "trauma- and stress-related disorder". The search yielded a total of 144 records. References of relevant articles were also searched for additional studies. After duplicates removed, the remaining articles will be fully read with the aim of finding all the existing studies that examine all forms of portable device to target biofeedback techniques in affective disorders. All type of studies will be considered (from development studies to clinical trials), always that an affective disorder is targeted.

RESULTS: Only a few studies present solid evidence through rigorous clinical trials. Besides, the integration with other technologies is also a matter of concern; only 1 study integrated the biofeedback technique with a virtual reality environment and only 1 with gamified features. An overview of the utilized portable devices for the treatments of affective disorders will be presented. The characteristics of the devices, the results obtained in those studies and the main strengths and limitations are described.

DISCUSSION: Although m-health has blossomed in the last decade, biofeedback treatments through mobile devices are not still widely researched. The scarcity of clinical trials, in particular randomized control trials, hinders the possibility to further disseminate biofeedback techniques in healthcare. From the available prototypes, most of them present evidence in laboratory settings. A discussion of the current state of the technological development of portable devices for biofeedback techniques in the affective disorders realm will be outlined. In particular, suggestions for the design and implementation of portable devices for the regulation of psychophysiological processes associated with affect will be presented.

ABSTRACT. BACKGROUND: The idea of understanding human behavior is very old in human science and several attempts tried to shed new light in the field. Human behavior is by definition complex, being relational, dynamic and multidimensional, so it is crucial to define methods for modeling it with adherence to reality. Classic laboratory settings can be affordable and efficient for studying human behavior, but could embed biases in identifying real aspects of the dynamic nature that this include. On the other hand, an understanding of human behavior in daily life could be the key aspect of the intrinsic nature of the several facets composing its complexity. METHODS: A multi-step method is proposed to study the human behavior in daily life. First of all an ecological momentary assessment can be used by the means of experience sampling method and the contemporary use of psychophysiological signals recorded through wearable biosensors, such as a wrist recording an electrocardiogram (ECG) to extract heart rate variability indexes. These parameters can be used to infer social, cognitive and affective states in ecological settings during daily life. The conveyed signals can be computed in real-time in a connected server where also other signals and parameter of subjects’ behaviors converge. A complex data fusion and computation can be used for feeding a computational psychometric model, able to continuously compute and extract new source of information, making the model more and more precise in predicting new behaviors. RESULTS: A sample of 10 subjects with 350 sections has been used to compute several parameters able to converge in a complex model to be tested in other 5 subjects with the purpose of behavioral forecasting. The model allowed to create a continuum between two complex scenarios identifying flow vs. stress behavior. The idea was to use the model to forecast a possible human states in new potential situations during daily life. Computational properties of the model has been deeply examined in term of efficacy and precision. DISCUSSION: Despite several limitations, our computational model was able to predict different kind of potential behavior during daily life. The use of psychophysiological and self-reported states is able to forecast with an acceptable degree of accuracy potential human behaviors. Even if a stronger validation is deeply needed, we can confirm that this approach can constitute a valid tools for decision making and we provides several applications in various field.

ABSTRACT. From time immemorial, humans exchange their experiences through stories. Today’s mediums such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are appropriate to create and live experiences since they are very immersive and more and more interactive. This make them convenient to learn and apprehend one's experiences or memories through to a certain intimacy and empathy (Bollmer 2017). In this article, we detail the creative process we used to revisit these mediums with the challenge of transmitting an experience to a group of visitors in the context of an art exhibition. We propose to question the immersion and interaction, and to divert their use usually intended for a single user to a group experience. At first, we describe the process of creating an adaptation of an AR book to an interactive scenographic installation for multiple visitors. The work is a story of adventure written in the first person who transcribes the experience of the author during a 3-month pilgrimage “out of the comfort zone” in Japan. This story lends itself well to the adaptation of singular experience that one can live in AR or VR. Its adaptation into an installation that allows to open the experience from a solo experience (the book) to a group experience raises two questions: —Indeed, VR with headset is a solitary experience that limits the sharing. How to preserve the immersive and interactive properties of VR in the context of an artistic exhibition for a group of visitors? —Also, how to actively engage the viewer and encourage him to appropriate this story in a singular experience but in an open context suitable for observing of the other and exchanging with them? To answer this questions, we are inspired by the concept of vicariance (Berthoz 2013) where the author defines that “every creative act implies a change of point of view offering a new perspective on things, a decentering that only vicariance is able to provoke.” We propose to set up a composite scenography of several playful interactive installations (with projections, responsive objects, interactive sound…). We also refer to the concepts of enaction and embodied cognition (Rosch et al. 1991) by inviting the viewer to create memories in and through the action, including body engagement. Also, we wish to augment the experience by proposing an open scenography, where spectators can watch each other interacting and improvising. In addition, the design of the installation gives viewers the freedom to choose their level of engagement in the experience. Prior work from (Guez et al. 2017) shows the added value to add real and tangible elements in the scenography of an artistic VR installation, this creates a smooth transition between the real to the virtual world. In this way, we focus our research on a finer work of interaction with the artwork allowing the transmission of experience, memory, experience through action. In the interaction process (Dalsgaard et al. 2008) describe the viewer can oscillate between three phases: operator (he activates the installation), spectator and performer. It seems then relevant to create an interactive scenography that will allow a varied engagement of the spectators (spectator—operator—performer) without of course losing the dramaturgical coherence of the initial work. We proposed a model to adapt an AR book to an interactive multi-viewer scenography with an alternative use of the fundamentals of VR (immersion and interaction). The immersive scenography created is open, multifaceted and focus on an engaging, sensitive, playful and participative interaction. In addition, we believe the creative process we adopt to share with the audience the book’s theme—vulnerability and wonder—using VR and AR could be inspiring in a cyberpsychology context.

ABSTRACT. This project has two purposes. The first is to apply the aesthetic practices promoted by the communication theorist Harold Innis. Innis was a founder of the Toronto School of Communication, one whose writings were dedicated to promoting cultural innovation through a practice he referred to as the Oral Tradition. Innis likened intellectual and artistic constructs to complex adaptive systems, systems comprised of multiple, heterogeneous parts. Innovation could be obtained, he argued, by recombining the constituent parts, jettisoning some, and adding new content and new formalisms into the resulting construction. It was this method, he argued, that enabled ancient Greece to create new genres of literature and philosophy. Our second purpose was to explore how Innis’ ideas could be applied in the medium of Augmented Reality (AR). More specifically, it sought to explore how Data Art and Sonic Art could be used as constituents for AR Landscape Art. Data Art and Sonic Art respectively visualize and sonify data to produce genres of art such as Algorithmic Art and Protein Music. In our project, we incorporated these artistic forms first by constructing a virtual set, which we overlaid on top of the central traffic circle at Brock University. The set featured a 9m high floating sphere or cube which displayed the project’s visual representations, and a sequence of eight floating monoliths, which were arrayed around the circumference of the traffic circle. Within the set, we displayed two works, The Five Senses and Emergence, which respectively were generated from Protein and Text Data. For the first work, we used the U.S. National Institutes of Health protein database first to locate proteins affiliated with each human sense. From that data, we generated algorithmic art and music pieces respectively affiliated with each sense. We began the process first by exporting a sequence of letters from each protein record, letters that represented the protein’s constituent amino acids. Our work required that our source data be numeric in form, so each letter in our sequence was translated into a number, with A equaling 1, B equaling 2, Z equaling 26, and so on. Once we had our numeric set, the data was then imported into MusicWonk, software designed to transform numeric sets into musical notation, and export the raw music string as an audio file. The file was then transferred to music composer Erin Dempsey, who fixed aberrations in pitch, added chords to complexify the sound, and altered note duration to give the resulting pieces a sense of rhythm. Our next step was to visualize the data, a task undertaken by Brock mathematician and algorithmic artist Bill Ralph. Ralph produced algorithms designed to generate dynamic images characterized by complex topologies and mixtures of colours. The animations are driven by the algorithm proceeding sequentially through the data, and also by locating relationships between different, non-proximate strings within the data. The final task in our workflow was the generation of an Android app capable of displaying the project’s art and music. Here, our aim was not only to support user perception, but also audience unity of experience. We wanted all users to see and hear the same content at the same time, user requirements that were met by computer science colleagues at Brock and Edge Hill universities. We see this project as the first step of many. Next steps will include modifying our app so viewers can incorporate their own data. We also seek to generate new art works that will be integrated into skyscapes and seascapes.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: How are we aware of ourselves as independent individuals? Previous studies suggested that self-perception is highly related with two components: experiencing oneself as the owner of the body and experiencing oneself as the agent of actions through the body. Self-perception would play a key role in development of therapeutic techniques for emotion related symptoms. Recent advances in technology have allowed us to experience an illusory feeling of body ownership of a virtual surrogate by generating agency over its action through motion-capture technologies. Several studies have shown that such virtual embodiment has the power to elicit perceptual, behavioral or cognitive changes related to oneself, however, its emotional effects have not been rigorously examined yet. In this study, we investigated whether the intensity of agency-induced body ownership and the facial expression of the virtual surrogate can modulate participants’ emotion. Method: The experiment was designed with a 2 (synchronous and asynchronous) x 3 (happy, neutral, or angry) within-group design to investigate the effects of facial expressions in two conditions of full body ownership. In synchronous condition, the movements of the virtual body (VB) were synchronous and congruent with those of each participant in real time. In asynchronous condition, the VB movements were produced from a prerecorded animation and were asynchronous and incongruent from the motion of each participant. Each condition of motion synchrony consisted of three sub-conditions varying with facial expressions (happy, neutral, and angry). During each condition, participants were asked to move freely and look their movements. For the virtual environment, a virtual room including a mirror on a wall was implemented where participants could see the VB from the first-person perspective. The participant experienced the virtual environment through a head-mounted display and a six-camera motion-capture system was used to reflect participants’ movements to the VB. Twenty participants were recruited for the experiment. To measure the intensity of body ownership and emotional responses, a seven-item body ownership illusion questionnaire (BOIQ) and self- assessment Manikin (SAM) were used. Results: Results revealed the motion synchrony presented a significant main effect on body ownership illusion, F (1, 19) = 15.935, p < .005, and ηp2 = .456. Participants reported much stronger experience of body ownership and agency in synchronous condition. Motion synchrony also presented a significant effect on changes in emotional valence, F (1, 19) = 9.664, p < .01, and ηp2 = .337. Participants reported more positive emotion in synchronous condition, whereas they reported more negative emotion in asynchronous condition. The facial expressions also presented a significant main effect on emotional valence, F (2, 18) = 4.026, p < .05, and ηp2 = .175. Post-hoc analyses revealed that effects of synchrony were significant for all face expressions. Post-hoc analyses also showed that in synchronous condition, the emotional valence was significantly different between the happy and the angry facial expressions. No interaction effect of synchrony and facial expression was found. Discussion: The key finding of this study is that the emotional responses in valence were significantly enhanced in the synchronous condition, where participants had a stronger feeling of full-body ownership of a virtual avatar. The positive changes in emotional valence in the synchrony condition were also significantly enhanced or suppressed combining with the facial expression of the VB. Considering possible combinations of motion synchrony and facial expressions may provide an important foundation for the development of therapeutic techniques to help people having emotion-related symptoms based on the paradigm of a virtually embodied self.

ABSTRACT. Virtual reality (VR) has become a widespread tool with many applications in physical and motor rehabilitation. In immersive VR, a user’s body can be represented as an avatar that mimics the user’s movements in real-time leading to the subjective body ownership illusion. This illusion is the gradual process of perceptual illusion that artificial body parts or full bodies are perceived by healthy adults as their own, with non-conscious neural representation of the body’s position and capabilities for action. It has recently been shown that inducing the ownership illusion and then manipulating the movements of one’s self-avatar can lead to compensatory motor control strategies in gait rehabilitation. Therefore, inducing and maintaining a strong ownership illusion may be important to maximize this effect. The purpose of this study is to distinguish and measure first-person embodied control versus first-person observation of the gait of a self-avatar viewed in immersive VR to establish the representation of gait embodiment in a human brain Methods: Twelve healthy participants have been recruited for this study. During experimentations, participants stand on a treadmill, wearing motion capture markers that are traced with 12 Vicon cameras for real-time movement tracking. A gender-matched avatar is displayed in an Oculus Rift from a first-person perspective. Thirty-two electrodes are placed over the participants’ heads to record EEG in an experiment that consists of 3 blocks. In block 1, participants are cued to do either take a single step forward with the leg that matches the cue direction, or to initiate walking on the treadmill. At the beginning of the block, the movements of the avatar are always the same as those executed by the participant in real time, in order to create a strong illusion of body ownership. Later in block 1, the avatar sometimes takes a step with the contralateral leg or stops walking while the participant is still walking. The difference between the expected movement and the perceived movement has specific neural signatures with different processing latencies correlating with the level of embodiment. In block 2, participants observe a replay of block 1 in first-person perspective. This bock allows us to measure the difference in brain activations between mere observation of self-avatar gait and actual embodiment and control of the avatar. In block 3, participants imagine performing the move they are cued to do without actual performing the movement. The avatar responds exactly as in block 1. This is to create embodiment and to train them to control a BCI (future work). After each block, participants answer a 9-question questionnaire that includes information about body ownership, localization, and agency. For each block and each condition, brain activity will be analyzed, where the µ waves (8-12 Hz) and SMR (12-15 Hz) ERD and power spectral density will be calculated, for a single electrode and cluster analysis. ANOVA and t-test measures will be used over EEG and the questionnaires. Expected results: Preliminary results of the first 6 participants will be presented. An avatar gait embodiment level is expected to be detected with specific neural signatures that will differentiate gait embodiment and observation, as well as embodiment level between the beginning and the end of each block. This embodiment is expected be quantified, with a lateralized effect over the sensorimotor cortex. Conclusion: When doing VR-based rehabilitation or training, this embodiment measure can be monitored for a better outcome. Also, it is a very important factor to know when developing a BCI, since the more the participant feels ownership, the more effective the results are.

ABSTRACT. The concepts of spaces and places have been present in Psychology for a long time (e.g. think of Milgram’s study of Paris in 1970 or Lewin’s work on psychological ecology in 1943). While often used interchangedly, these two terms have different meanings: spaces are ‘abstract, unlimited […] continuous’ (Gieseking & Mangold, 2014) and in this age may refer to the technical, digital and material characteristics of an environment (Brivio, Cilento & Galimberti, 2011), places are the concrete shape and manifestation of social norms and practices, culture and social interactions, and therefore carry a specific meaning for the people who inhabit and/or use the environments (Gieseking & Mangold, 2014; Brivio, Cilento, & Galimberti, 2011). The advent of digital and portable technologies, ICTs, Social Networks, The Internet of things and Artificial Intelligence makes it important to revise these concepts. Indeed technologies have started to change people’s perception, use and experience of places and spaces. In particular, what at first was a very clear distinction between ‘real life’ and ‘online’ environments, is right now disappearing and environments integrating both the digital and the physical sides are appearing. The portmanteau ‘Phygital’ (physical + digital) indicates this kind of environments, which have the following features (Gaggioli, 2017): context awareness (the environments use sensors to be aware of people and their movements and actions), embeddedness (sensors connected to wireless network reduce human intervention and make specific action automatic), and natural interaction (human-computer interaction is driven by gesture, voice, and movements). While this term was used first in 2007 (possibly to indicate other types of spaces using technology), Google Trends shows that started taking off in 2015 with 36/100 points of interests over time, reaching 100/100 points in December 2017. Interest in phygital environments started slow in the academic field: Google Scholar shows few papers from 2007 to 2013 (total of 9 papers), 28 and 25 papers for 2014 and 2015 respectively; numbers of paper has risen quickly to 60 in 2016 and 76 in 2017. Interestingly, the research areas of these publication are mainly marketing, technical/gaming papers, and urban studies, with only one short piece published in a psychology-focused paper. Marketing papers mostly focus on how to build a ‘phygital’ costumer experience – similarly on how technical and gaming paper focus on how to build phygital games - while urban studies articles recount experiences of new urban phygital spaces. Currently there is no scientific literature that explore phygital spaces from a psychological point of view. It is therefore necessary that professionals and researchers from different branches of psychological disciplines rally around these new environments, not just to study people within phygital places, but to help design and evaluate them in collaboration with more technical professions - such as interaction designers, UX specialists, architects, AI experts, etc. Phygital environments may also usher in a paradigmatic change from classic cyberpsychology to a transdisciplinary cyberpsychology of phygital environments. The aim of this contribution is to present this emerging field of research and the possible epistemological changes it may bring, using current phygital projects being developed (phygital library, phygital neighborhood), and finally highlight how psychologists from different fields can contribute to develop better phygital environments.

ABSTRACT. Cyberbullying is a serious global concern, with increasing literature examining the prevalence rates, predictors and effects of these experiences on young people. However, less focus has been placed on adults’ perceptions and behaviours in relation to cyberbullying. Considering that prevention and intervention strategies to address cyberbullying often require collaboration and buy-in from adults (e.g. teachers and parents), understanding adults’ views is crucial. Moreover, establishing the experiences of cyberbullying among adults can help to extend current initiatives to counter its negative effects beyond childhood and adolescence.

The primary aim of the current study was to measure perceived severity of various types of cyberbullying among adults. Although studies have previously made attempts to explore perceived severity in various populations, they have failed to do so systematically using a conceptual framework. The current study utilised Willard’s (2007) framework which outlines seven forms of cyberbullying (i.e. flaming, harassment, denigration, impersonation, outing and trickery, exclusion, and cyberthreats and stalking). Items capturing different nuances of Willard’s (2007) typology were developed for the study, while others were adapted from existing scales (e.g. Hinduja & Patchin, 2009; Espelage, Low, Rao, Hong & Little, 2013). A total of 35 items were included in the measure, with participants rating severity for each on a 5-point Likert scale. The secondary aim of the study was to explore whether variables such as gender, age, time spent online or adults’ personal experiences of cyberbullying as victims, witnesses and perpetrators impacted their perceptions of severity.

Data was collected through convenience sampling using an online survey. A total of 401 participants (272 females) aged 18-70 years (M = 29.18, SD = 9.53) took part in the study. Most participants were from Singapore (22.4%), the United Kingdom (20.9%), and the United States (8.2%). Principal Component Analysis of the perceived severity scale revealed four overarching factors, labelled Defamation, Harassment, Exclusion and Pestering. Cronbach’s alpha for the scale was .96. Significant differences were found for mean severity ratings between all four types of cyberbullying: The findings showed that adults perceived Defamation as the most severe form of cyberbullying, followed by Harassment and Pestering. Adults rated Exclusion as least severe. Additional analyses exploring group differences showed that females had higher perceived severity of cyberbullying overall and in particular for Defamation (medium effect), Harassment (large effect) and Pestering (medium effect) compared to males. Time spent online and age of participants was not associated with perceived severity of cyberbullying. The findings also revealed that 75% of the participants had ever witnessed cyberbullying while online, 36% had ever been a victim of cyberbullying and 11% had ever perpetrated cyberbullying. Interestingly, adults’ personal experiences of being a victim or witness to cyberbullying did not impact on perceived severity overall nor for any of the four types. However, perpetrators of cyberbullying rated Defamation and Exclusion as significantly more severe than adults who did not perpetrate cyberbullying. The implications of the findings are discussed in light of current literature in the area, including that Willard’s (2007) typology may contain overlapping behaviours and that four core cyberbullying types may be more useful in future research. Moreover, the findings provide important insights for targeting cyberbullying in older age groups by highlighting behaviours of focus that may be useful in raising awareness.

ABSTRACT. Distinguishing between two types of online harassment : cyberbullying and online harassment by unknowns, and comparison of these two types of online harassment and traditional bullying among Korean students  

Researches which want to reveal the differences between cyber and traditional bullying, and characteristics and uniqueness of cyberbullying are rising. However, despite the increasing attention, outcomes are not consistent, some says two things are different but other says they are similar one. The purpose of this paper is to find solution to overcome this confusion in distinguishing cyberbullying and tradition bullying

Much of confusion may derive from the lack of consistency in defining and measuring cyberbullying. Does cyberbullying mean any harmful and aggressive behaviors which occur in online interpersonal interactions. How about bullying? Does bullying also mean any harmful and aggressive behavior occurring in offline interpersonal interaction?

According to Dr. Olweus(1993), "A person is bullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons, and he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself." This definition indicates three factors as characteristics of bullying: unwanted negative actions, repetition over time, and imbalance of power or strength, therefore, bullying is explicitly peer abuse which occurs in the group living environment such as school, work, and the military. If we adopt this definition of bullying in defining cyberbullying, cyberbullying can be defined as "A person is cyberbullied when he or she is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons in the cyberspace(via e-mail, texting, chatting, SNS, online community, etc.), while he or she has difficulty defending himself or herself." Therefore, cyberbullying is also peer abuse which occurs in the online interaction among school friends, colleagues of work and the military.

This point was already indicated by Wolak et. al.(2007), they pointed out that among various types of online interpersonal offenses, some aggressive behaviors does not meet the criteria of bullying such as power imbalance between offender and victim, and repetition of aggressive behaviors. Therefore, they suggest to use “online harassment” to describe online interpersonal offenses rather than “cyberbullying”, and to use “cyberbullying” only for very specific types of online harassment which occurs among known peers and victims have less power than aggressors.

Following the above reasons, I have distinguished two types of “online harassment” : “cyberbullying” and “online harassment by unknowns”. Cyberbullying is measured by the following question : “Have you ever caused any harm to your school friends(including younger or older friends in either same or different schools) in the cyber space?” and online harassment by unknowns is measured by the following question : “Have you ever caused any harm in the cyberspace to any unknown persons whom you met only in the cyberspace?”. Traditional offline bullying is measured as similar way of cyberbullying by “Have you ever caused any harm to your school friends(including younger or older friends in either same or different schools) in offline face to face situation?”

Social survey conducted on 1,125 Korean students from 7th grade to 12th shows that three different types of interpersonal harmful aggressive behaviors namely, traditional bullying, cyberbullying and online harassment by unknowns have unique characteristic respectively. 

In the traditional bullying context, there are more victims than offenders, however, in cyberbullying, more offenders than victims. However in the case of online harassment by unknowns, victims turn out more than offenders.  

Concerning the cause of aggressive behavior, “victims do something mean or wrong behaviors” and “showing off myself to the friends” are more frequently mentioned as a cause of aggressive behaviors in traditional bullying than other types of aggressive behaviors, However, “revenging the offender who harassed me”, and “not to be an outcast from friends” are more mentioned as a cause in the cyberbullying situation.

Another difference was also found in the reaction of victims after affliction, most serious reaction such as “thought about suicide and self-injury” are most often thought about by the victims of cyberbullying than the victims of online harassment by unknowns and traditional bullying. 

Furthermore, regression analysis reveals that while friend environment(association with violent friends), social tensions like tensions in friendship, lack of appropriate family and school control are significantly related to both cyberbullying and online harassment by unknowns, however psychological factor(aggressiveness) and social control of cyber space are significant only in online harassment by unknowns. This result partially confirms that different causal factors may apply to cyberbullying and online harassment by unknowns.  

< Reference >

Olweus, D., Bullying at School: What we know and what we can do, Blackwell, Malden, MA, 1993.

Wolak J., Mitchell, K. J. and Finkelhor, D., Does Online Harassment Constitute Bullying? An Exploration of Online Harassment by Known Peers and Online-Only Contacts, Journal of Adolescent Health 41(2007), 51-58.

ABSTRACT. Previous research has indicated that women suffer more sexist comments than men online. Less studied, particularly using quantitative methods, has been the everyday negativity that women experience online, in the form of wordless “Dislike” reactions and negative verbal comments. Comments on YouTube videos, in particular, are characterized by frequent flaming and trolling. However, comparing the degree of negativity received by female and male YouTubers is made difficult by variance in the types of content that they post. The current study controlled for differences in content by looking at a highly constrained video genre, namely cover recordings by both women and men of the same recent pop songs. We chose 4 hit pop songs at random from each of the past five years: 2 by female solo artists and 2 by male solo artists. We then searched for cover versions of each song on YouTube, limiting the results to videos with 10,000–100,000 views. For each of the 20 original songs we selected 20 cover versions at random, 10 by male artists and 10 by female artists, yielding 400 cover videos in total. For the comments we used a random sub-sample of 2 male and 2 female cover videos per original song, analyzing up to the oldest 100 comments on each video, yielding 4855 comments on 80 cover videos. The ratio of Likes to Dislikes for each cover video was analyzed using a nested linear mixed-effects model, specifying Original Artist Gender, Cover Artist Gender, and Number of Views as fixed effects, and Original Song as a random effect. For comment analysis, two raters labeled negative comments and comments that referred to the artist’s appearance. We then produced two further linear mixed-effects models on the percentages of comments with these labels, substituting Number of Comments for Number of Views in the fixed effects. Controlling for the random effects of the different original songs, there was a significant fixed effect of cover artist gender on the ratio of Dislikes to Likes received (F = 11.1, p = .001), with female cover artists receiving one Dislike for every 12.1 Likes, but male cover artists receiving Dislikes only half as frequently, once every 24.2 Likes. Unexpectedly, there was a very similar effect of original artist gender (F = 9.74, p = .002), with covers of “originally female” songs receiving one Dislike for every 11.9 Likes, while covers of “originally male” songs received one per 25.3 Likes. While analysis of the comments has not yet finished, currently they show a similar pattern to Dislikes: on average 7.81% of comments on female cover artists, but only 5.24% on male artists, are negative. Similarly, on average 8.20% of comments on female cover artists, but only 2.23% on male artists, refer to the artist’s appearance. This is probably the first quantitative analysis of negative value judgements received by women in YouTube video comments that attempts to control for video content. Despite the reputation that online comment sections have for being nests of trolls, overall levels of negativity were low. Nevertheless, gender differences in negativity matter because even one thumbs-down or comment such as “fucking [w]hore you sing so bad” can hurt, and it was more common for male cover artists to receive no negative comments at all. A limitation is that these findings could be specific to pop song cover videos and may not generalize to other types of material. Hence, we will also present a “work in progress” analysis of Dislikes and comments made on male and female enactments of various types of popular “challenge” videos on YouTube, in an attempt to replicate our findings for music videos.

ABSTRACT. Background: Many celebrities utilize Twitter to generate publicity and build their brand (Marwick & Boyd, 2011), but they are increasingly the targets of trolls, and victims of online abuse (e.g., Gorton & Garde-Hansen, 2013). Trolling often involves multiple perpetrators and can relate to many different topics (Lumsden & Morgan, 2017). Consequences of online abuse are potentially serious (e.g., Hinduja& Patchin, 2010), and public sympathy is often lacking (Gahagan, Vaterlaus, & Frost, 2016) because incidents are not perceived as severe and victims are often attributed blame (Weber, Ziegele, & Schnauber, 2013). The dark triad (DT) of personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, positively correlate with trolling behaviour (Buckels, Trapnell & Paulhus, 2014). Specifically, individuals high in psychopathy and Machiavellianism use more profane and aggressive language (Boochever, 2012; Sumner et al. 2012). This study investigates how different categories of tweets by celebrities, the volume of abuse directed towards them, and participants’ DT personality variables influence attributed victim blame (VB) and perceived incident severity.

Methods: The study utilized a 3 (Celebrity tweet: Positive, Neutral, Negative) x 2 (Volume of abuse: High, Low) within-participants design. Participants were 184 UK students (146 female; Mage=22.61). 74.5% identified as British and 22.8% as European. They were not compensated for participation. Participants viewed six screenshots of manufactured tweets by male celebrities. Each profile consisted of the celebrity’s name and profile picture, one tweet, and 6 replies. Two celebrity tweets were positive, two negative, and two neutral. They were followed by either a high (four) or low (two) volume of abusive replies. For each profile, VB and perceived severity were measured (Weber, Ziegele, & Schnauber, 2013). Participants also completed a questionnaire measuring narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy (SD3: Jones & Paulhus, 2013). Prior to the main experiment, an initial norming study determined that celebrities were moderately well known, that tweets were positive, negative, or neutral, and that abusive replies were abusive and negative.

Results: ANOVAs were conducted to determine the influence of celebrity tweet and volume of abuse on VB and perceived severity. For VB, attributed blame was higher following negative than positive or neutral celebrity tweets. Incident severity was perceived as lower following negative than neutral or positive celebrity tweets, and when there was a low volume of abusive replies. Pearson’s correlations were conducted to identify relationships between DT traits, and perceptions of VB and Severity. We found significant positive associations between VB and psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism; and negative associations between Severity and the DT variables reflecting small to medium effect sizes. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the predictive value of the DT variables for VB and Severity. The three DT variables collectively explained 5% of the variance in VB, but none of the DT variables were significant independent predictors, despite the modest variance explained collectively. The three DT variables collectively explained 9% of the variance in VB, and psychopathy was a significant independent predictor of Severity, with those higher in the trait more likely to regard online abuse as less severe.

Conclusions: Our findings that negative tweets both increased attributed celebrity blame, and reduced the perceived severity of the abuse, suggest that celebrities are ascribed responsibility for their online behaviour, and that abusive responses to negative content are considered warranted under some circumstances. The volume of abuse itself is indicative only of severity, not blame. Participants higher in DT traits were more likely to blame the victim, and considered online abuse to be less severe, confirming these traits contribute to anti-victim judgments. Psychopathy was the only trait to solely predict lower perceptions of severity, suggesting that judgments may be driven by a lack of empathy.

ABSTRACT. A report by the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights (2014) revealed that 11% of women have been subject to some form of unwanted or offensive sexually explicit e-mails, text messages or advances on social networking sites – a few examples of the many gendered forms of cyber-aggression that constitute cyber violence against women and girls (cyber VAWG). The present research examined cyber VAWG through the lens of the gaming community specifically, following several highly publicized incidents of cyber aggression toward female gamers. The research presented here are the results from exploratory analyses on qualitative open-ended questions collected as a part of a larger project. The larger project also developed a scale to measure endorsement of cyber VAWG and examined the role of sociopolitical ideologies and perceived threats as predictors of cyber VAWG (Jagayat & Choma, in prep). Two samples were recruited: undergraduate gamers from a Canadian university who received course credit and members of online gaming communities who were entered into a draw for digital gaming store credit. Participants completed measures of: ideology, ambivalent sexism, perceived threats, attitudes towards cyber VAWG, self-reported engagement in cyber VAWG, and two open-ended questions. Part-way through data collection of the online sample, a popular YouTuber streamed themselves doing the survey and archived that stream to their channel; this produced a considerably large number of responses. The online sample was split into two samples: those who completed the survey before it went ‘viral’ and those who completed it after. Responses to a question assessing gamers thoughts about the role of women in the gaming community (university sample n=46, online pre-viral sample n=266, online post-viral sample n=6197) and a question assessing gamers’ opinions on recent news stories of female members of the gaming community experiencing harassment on social media (university sample n=35, online pre-viral sample n=217, online post-viral sample n=5522) were analyzed. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2015 software, responses were coded into word categories pertinent to, and potentially influential of, cyber VAWG behaviour (e.g. use of 3rd person plural pronouns, analytic thinking words, and affective processing words). Thirteen word categories will be compared across samples. Correlations between the word categories, cyber VAWG attitudes, sexism, threat, and ideology will be explored. Last, the unique predictive ability of the word categories beyond typical predictors of cyber VAWG (e.g. threat, sexism, ideology) on the endorsement of and engagement in cyber VAWG will also be examined using regression analyses. Implications for future research will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. This research aims to verify the effectiveness of educational robotic on the executive funtions and in particular on the mental process of planning and problem solving. The sample consisted of 30 children, attending their fifth year at primary school. Participants were casually assigned to experimental and control group each composed of fifteen subjects: experimental group (8 males and 7 females, 10 years); control group (9 males and 6 females, 10 years). The children were divided into small groups (three or four children for each group) and each was provided with a robotic kit and it was involved in an curricular laboratory based on robotics activities (10 meetings; two hours each, once a week. The participants have to build a robot body and, subsequently, they have to plan and program different behavioral repertoire. For the intervention used LEGO Mindstorms robot assembled as a small vehicle, equipped with motor, ultrasonic sensors at the front, one pointed straight ahead, and a LED color light mounted on top. After the familiarization with the hardware and software elements of the kit, all the students were given construction and programming tasks having an increasing level of difficulty measured by the number of commands necessary for programming the robot. Incremental more difficult activities were proposed allowing the children to gradually achieve a greater competence, with an approach based on the “error-less learning” method. Each of the tasks provided opportunities for subject to program and observe the robotic toy and to reflect on the toy’s movement. The dynamic actions of the toy created a “shared moment” which was highly visual and in turn provided opportunities for shared attention and group work. Programming robot actions requires, for each step, mental anticipation of the action, selection of the appropriate robot command and continuous updating of the programming in order to obtain the goal. Before and after training we assessed thes cognitive and executive functions through following tests: Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), reduced version that includes three subtests, to investigate motor planning and executive control; Trial Making Test (TMT, Forms A, B and B-A, version for children under 15) to assess attentional skills, visuo-motor planning, sustained attention and working memory; the Tower of London (ToL) for the capacity of planning and problem solving. The main finding was a significant improvement in visuo-spatial attention and a significant effect also on robot programming skills.These data provide scientific support to the hypothesis that robotics activities are suitable in progressively improving abilities in planning and controlling complex tasks in children, fostering executive functions development.

ABSTRACT. Background: Divided attention is an important cognitive ability that underlies most everyday tasks. The neural correlates of divided attention are linked to the prefrontal cortex, which comprise the main region for higher order processing being also one of the first to deteriorate due to ageing. While it is important to understand the declines in divided attention, the lack of ecological validity of traditional neurocognitive tests requires the development of naturalistic tests with psychometric rigor, but that allow a better understanding of the impact of such deficits in everyday living. Thus, based on these assumptions, this study consisted of developing and testing a virtual reality test for divided attention in old-aged persons.

Methods: The sample comprised 53 elderly (Mage = 77 years) participants (44 women), mostly with low education, that were recruited in a day-care centre for old-aged persons (CSPCG) in Lisbon, Portugal. The participants were exposed to the virtual kitchen test, being performed with Google card board glasses and a smartphone. This test requires the participants to bake a cake by dragging seven ingredients from the kitchen cabinet to the balcony according to a pre-established order while listening to news on a radio. At the end of the task they were asked to recall three pieces of the information playing on the radio. The participants were assessed in one session with the virtual kitchen test along with traditional neurocognitive tests for general cognitive ability (Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and the Frontal Assessment Battery) and attention (D2).

Results: 57% of the sample accomplished the virtual kitchen task successfully, of which only 10% correctly recalled the three pieces of the radio information. This task took in average 3 minutes to complete. No effects of age, education or self-reported depression were found on the performance of the task. Rather, performance was associated with the D2 test for attention (p < 0,05). Additionally, it was observed using a moderated linear regression model that this relationship was moderated by education level, suggesting that this association is true only for people with education above basic level.

Conclusion: The overall results suggest that the virtual kitchen test is feasible to assess attention ability. The degree of difficulty was higher for the recall task, but the analysis on the distributions of these variables did not show floor effects. The results suggest also that performance of the virtual kitchen test do not resemble the D2 test in participants with lower education level. This reveals the importance of education and cognitive reserve in the assessment of attention, possibly suggesting that attention assessment in people with less education should be based on different sources of information in order to better describe the real deficits of the old-aged person.

ABSTRACT. Context Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are at risk for further cognitive decline and at risk of physical decline and decreased mobility. These individuals are often told to “wait and see” and can become frustrated with the lack of treatment options. However, a recent systematic review found that exercise has the potential to improve cognition in individuals with MCI. Further, individuals with MCI who report greater physical activity have a lower chance of their MCI progressing to dementia.

Virtual reality training (VRT) uses computer software to track the user’s movements and allow them to interact with a therapeutic game or activity presented on a TV screen. Virtual reality training (VRT) can incorporate both physical and cognitive exercise, is interesting and enjoyable to perform. Home-based VRT is convenient, cost-effective, easy to schedule and may be done for an unlimited period. Individuals can participate in engaging exercise daily, without the costs and inconvenience of travelling to community-based programs, especially in poor weather.

Our objective is to determine if VRT is feasible and safe for home-based exercise in individuals with MCI.

Methods Twelve participants with MCI are being recruited from the Bruyère Memory Program at Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital. Participants must not have a medical condition that precludes moderate exercise and must have a study partner.

VRT is provided using software (Jintronix, Montreal) coupled with a Kinect camera (Microsoft) which captures the movements of the participant and allows them to interact with a game. Games and activities are available to train strength, aerobic conditioning, balance, gait and cognition.

Participants attend one session at the hospital. Participants are assessed and then trained on the VRT platform. VRT game/activity selection and parameters are individualized. The researcher then installs the VRT equipment into the participant’s home and provides a second training session. Participants are requested to perform their VRT program for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week for 6 weeks. Participants are contacted by phone or email at least once a week, to monitor progress and provide assistance. The researchers can access the Jintronix platform remotely, to monitor use of the program and change games/settings. Participants are given a logbook in which to write comments/problems/questions about the VRT program. After 6 weeks, participants are interviewed to obtain their opinions on all aspects of the program.

Outcome Measures The log books, notes from telephone conversations and interview transcripts are coded and analysed to extract themes that address the study objectives. VRT usage is obtained from the Jintronix system.

Results Four participants with MCI have participated in the study. Feasibility has been confirmed within the following themes: 1. Ability to use the technology. It was possible to set up the equipment and connect to the internet in all instances. Participants could access the software, log in and go through the VRT program. One participant was unable to log in; this issue was solved over the phone. 2. Ability to learn and progress the games. All 4 participants were able to learn the games. Two reported difficulty following the avatar at times. Progression was seen throughout the 6 weeks, except for one participant, who began with limited physical stamina. All participants reported benefit from the physical activity, including reduced fatigue, better balance and more stamina. 3. Safety. There were no adverse effects. 4. Enjoyment. All participants reported enjoying the exercise program. Two wished to continue it beyond the study. All reported frustration with feedback and game results that did not meet their expectations. 5. Compliance. All participants completed 29-40 sessions over 6 weeks.

Conclusion Early results suggest that home-based VRT is feasible for individuals with MCI.

ABSTRACT. We introduce bWell, a clinician-centric immersive research platform for the remediation of cognitive deficits using virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) developed by the NRC. The goal of the platform is to provide a general “menu” of AR and VR cognitive exercises which can be adapted by clinicians to meet the specific needs of their patients.

Instead of focusing on a single pathology, bWell targets general aspects of cognition which are common to several disorders: working memory, divided and sustained attention, impulse control, sensory processing, anxiety management and executive functions. Exercises are designed from the ground up to be immersive, gamified and provide a dual-task challenge. The platform uses industry-standard game development techniques and is designed to be perceptually correct through the use of global illumination, detailed textures, and shadows. It is unique in that it is hardware-agnostic, seamlessly supporting multiple AR/VR systems ranging from low-end mobile devices to high-end consumer devices (Hololens, HTC Vive, Oculus) in order to facilitate its adoption in a clinical or home setting. Adaptive difficulty algorithms have been implemented to keep users continuously challenged without the direct intervention of the clinician.

In the current experiment, the acceptability of the bWell platform was evaluated using a cohort of twenty-six healthy adults. The goal was to measure user engagement and to evaluate the risk of cybersickness as a prerequisite to testing the system on cognitively-impaired populations, since cybersickness and acceptability of VR technology are frequent concerns for clinicians.

The platform was tested on an HTC Vive system, and three out of the seven available exercises were selected: MOLE, LAB and TENT. The MOLE exercise requires users to hit targets of a specific color that changes over time, challenging their impulse control. The LAB exercise requires users to complete two parallel “recipes” following a specific timed sequence, challenging divided attention and executive functions. The TENT exercise is an open-ended relaxation space: users can change the scenery and interact with a sensory sphere proposing a relaxing breathing pattern. All exercises use tracked remotes for interacting with the scene, as well as gaze-based navigation. A top-down non-immersive tablet version of the MOLE exercise was also created as a control. It uses the same underlying game logic with touch instead of remote interactivity.

Subjects were randomly divided in two groups: one group was to compare a single VR exercise (MOLE) with its non-immersive version to evaluate engagement; the other group was to try two different VR exercises for cybersickness assessment. All test sessions were limited to three minutes but subjects could interrupt the session at any time. Standard questionnaires for cybersickness (SSQ) and game user satisfaction (GUESS) were filled by the subjects immediately after each exercise.

Cybersickness symptoms were minor and engagement in immersive VR was high. Only one (1/26) user reported multiple symptoms that could be attributed to cybersickness, but also reported very strong engagement and desire to play again. Some users were physically unable to wear their glasses with the headset, leading to vision issues (eye strain, blurred vision). Many users also reported sweating under the headset. These issues are not directly related to cybersickness, but might play a role in the system acceptability. None of the sessions had to be interrupted due to discomfort.

Results show that user engagement was significantly higher in the immersive version of the MOLE exercise. We obtained statistically significant differences for all components of engagement: engrossment (P = 0.0015), enjoyment (P = 0.002) and personal gratification (P = 0.01) as measured by the GUESS survey.

This demonstrates that the bWell platform has high user acceptability, both in terms of engagement and comfort.

ABSTRACT. Dementia is associated with behavioural changes sometimes referred to as responsive behaviours (RB). RBs are an extreme source of stress for care partners and are frequently the reason why people with dementia (PWD) are moved to a long-term care (LTC) setting.

This pilot study’s objective was to evaluate the potential of using a virtual reality (VR) application to provide a realistic environment where LTC staff, care partners and students in health-care fields (e.g. nurses, physicians, and personal support workers) would gain knowledge and skills on how best to provide person-centered care in the context of responsive behaviours.

To this end, 23 healthcare professionals working with PWD, 25 care partners to PWD, 27 students in a health-related field, and 11 university or community college faculty members teaching courses relevant to gerontology and dementia tested the application.

Pre-immersion participants completed: (a) a brief socio-demographic questionnaire; (b) a questionnaire regarding previous experience with RBs and VR; (c) the Immersive Tendencies Questionnaire (ITQ; Witmer and Singer 1998); and (d) the Simulator Sickness Question-naires (SSQ; Kennedy et al. 1993). Just prior to immersion, participants viewed a seven-minute video narrating the life course of the immersion’s main person of interest, a PWD. Once immersed in the VR using an HTC VIVE, participants found themselves in an elevator arriving on the fifth floor of a LTC home. Participants then proceeded to a bedroom where they practiced navigating in the VE, and accommodated to the sensations associated with VR immersion. They then proceeded to a large common dining room and walked to the table where the PWD was sitting with his grand-daughter. Participants then sat down on a physical chair. The dining room was lively with various noises (e.g. loud conversations, PA announcements, television, clinking dishes) and with the PWD exhibiting signs of frustration. For the following 10 minutes, participants were to (a) observe the interaction between the PWD and his grand-daughter; and (b) be attentive to the impact of the environmental stimuli on the PWD. Once the scenario complete, participants filled out (a) the SSQ (Kennedy et al. 1993); (b) the Independent Television Commission Sense of Presence Inventory (ITC-SOPI; Lessiter et al. (2001); (c) a questionnaire regarding the quality of the grand-daughter’s interaction with the PWD; and (d) a questionnaire regarding the quality of the application, its usefulness, usability, and potential as a training tool.

Results suggest that this type of VR application was judged to be clinically relevant and of potential use as a training tool to help users better address responsive behaviors. During immersion, participants felt present and emotionally engaged. Many participants identified the inability to interact with the virtual persons as a shortfall, and few reported mild to moderate levels of simulator sickness.

The investigators see the development and testing of a more complex interactive version of this VE (i.e. scenarios that will vary depending on actions by the user) as a next step in making this a clinically relevant training tool.