Psychology research

on a smartphone:

Some experiments

Dr. Caspar Addyman Birkbeck, University of London

University of Warwick,

Coventry

Thursday, 9th May 2013

Boozerlyzer

TRACX

uMotif

Alien Rabble

Addyman, 2009

Laboratory Real world

7 year olds 11 year olds Adults

• Participants do learn! p<0.001

• Learn different categories differently, p<0.003

• Difference between age groups, p<0.002

7 year olds 11 year olds Adults

• “Can I get this on my computer?”

• “I know this game! I’ve got it at home.”

• “Are we doing this every Tuesday?”

Boozerlyzer

Motivations

How much am I drinking?

How is this affecting me

cognitively & emotionally?

Tracking can change

behaviour

Tracking data is rich data

Motivations 2

Alcohol is a drug.

The most widely used

and abused drug

The most harmful to

individuals

The most harmful to

society

(ISCD 2010)

http://boozerlyzer.net https://github.com/yourbrain

Open Science / Open Data

boozerlyzer.net

Private

Public

Boozerlyzer results

Addyman (in prep)

Self Reported Happiness

Boozerlyzer results

Addyman (in prep)

Self Reported Energy

Boozerlyzer results

Addyman (in prep)

Self Reported Drunkeness

Boozerlyzer results

Addyman (in prep)

Coordination game Number Stroop game

Boozerlyzer Summary

• Users

• Costs

• Data

• Effects

• Results

TRACX

(French, Addyman & Mareschal, Psych Rev, 2011)

Truncated Recursive Autoassocative

Chunk Extractor

(French, Addyman & Mareschal, Psych Rev, 2011)

http://leadserv.u-bourgogne.fr/~tracx/

http://github.com/YourBrain/TRACX-Web

Computational modeling manifesto (Addyman & French, ToPICS, 2012)

1.Let EVERYONE run your simulations

(easily)

2.Let motivated users adjust parameters/

run their own simulations

3.Let other modelers use your code4. Write good documentation

5. Clear mapping between model and empirical data

6. Show internal structure

7. Allow import/export to Excel, etc

uMotif

www.umotif.com

Amsterdam, November 2011

Parkinson’s Disease

• Neurodegenerative condition due to death of

dopamine producing cells in brain.

• Motor / movement related symptoms

• Later cognitive problems & effects of

medication

• Levodopa (L-DOPA), a dopamine precursor

• Affects 1.1 million people in Europe (127,000 in

UK)

• Cost of care/medication €10.7billion per year (

€7,000 per patient per year.)

• Symptoms can be highly sensitive to dose and

timing of medication.

Strategic Business

Research Initiative

(SBRI)

1 2

SBRI

• Phase 1 funding £75,000 from NHS Health

Enterprise East

• 6 month development and pilot testing

• Lambert 4 commercial agreement between

Birkbeck & uMotif

• Research costs

• 5% royalty on sales

• Cure Parkinson’s Trust – access to people with

Parkinson’s

Sleep

Tremor

Dyskinesia

Suppleness

Bradykinesia

Water

Exercise

Mood

Energy

Medication

Finger Tapping

Numerical Stroop Test

Randomized Control Trial

• 40 participants in two groups

• PARTIAL - Self report only

• FULL - Self report + objective measures

• Use tracker for 2 months

• Questionnaires before & after:

• Medicine compliance

• Parkinson’s symptoms

• Oxford Happiness Index

• Multidimensional Personality assessment

• Quality of Life Scale for people with

chronic illness

Trial: 41 recruited,

26 used application,

16 completed de-briefing

70%Av. daily use during 2

month trial period

“Excellent in conception and ease of use”

“I find it very attractive & extremely easy to use”

Patient Feedback:

Pre & post test questionnaires (n=16)

74

76

78

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

START END

PD

Q-3

9 S

co

re

PDQ-39 Scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

START END

NM

S S

co

re

Non-Motor Symptoms

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

02468

1012141618

START END

QO

LS

Sco

re

Quality of Life Score (QOLS)

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

START END

Med

icin

es S

co

re

Moritsky Medicines compliance (Higher is worse)

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

In – App data - Parkinson’s symptoms

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START ENDAvera

ge

Self

Rati

ng

Suppleness scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START END

Avera

ge

Self

R

ati

ng

Tremor scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START ENDAvera

ge

Self

Rati

ng

Dyskinesia scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START ENDAvera

ge

Self

Rati

ng

Bradykinesia scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

In – App data - Mood, Energy & Sleep

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START ENDAvera

ge

Self

Rati

ng

Mood scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START END

Avera

ge

Self

R

ati

ng

Energy scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

**

† p<.1, ** p<.01

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START END

Avera

ge

Self

R

ati

ng

Sleep scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

†

In – App data - Health Behaviours

***

* p<.05, *** p<.005

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START END

Avera

ge

Self

Rati

ng

Water scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

1

1.52

2.5

33.5

4

4.55

START END

Avera

ge

Self

R

ati

ng

Exercise scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

*

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

START END

Avera

ge

Self

R

ati

ng

Medication scores

FULL APP

LIMITED APP

Phase 2 - FUNDED

300 patient multi-centre test lasting 6 months

Suvankar Pal,

Rowling Centre and Forth

Valley

Mo

Albazzaz, Barnsl

ey Hospital

Ben Chico,

Rotherham

Ray

Chaudhuri, Kings

College

Julian Fearnley,

Barts and The Royal

London

Beverly Castleton,

St Peter’s

Hospital, Surrey

Andrew

Fowlie, NHS

Grampian

Max Little,

Aston University

IoN

Parkinson’s Tracker

• Users

• Costs

• Data

• Effects

• Results

Thank you!

c.addyman@bbk.ac.uk

@BrainStraining

http://boozerlyzer.net

http://umotif.com

Boozerlyzer

• 57 new recreational

drugs in EU in 2012

(EMCDDA)

• Most casual drug users

are poly drug users

• Self experimentation

requires better data

• Big data = better data

http://www.flickr.com/photos/genista/249525571/

The next step.. other drugs?

Boozerlyzer

Bufo alvarius Epipedobates tricolor