Research Line 1 - Ambulatory Assessment Methodology
Although ambulatory assessment methods have become increasingly feasible and popular in health behaviour research in recent years, little is yet known about optimal study designs, measurement methods and analyses techniques for different types of research questions and different research settings and populations. As a result, little standardisation exists across such studies, limiting the interpretation and comparison of study findings. In addition, many technological tools and algorithms are constantly being developed for passively sensing and processing physiological (e.g. Heart rate variability), behavioral (e.g. type of activity) or contextual (e.g. proximity of other people, geographic information) variables. Similar to the sampling of psychological experience the validation of such technical tools and how they should be employed in research is often lacking standardisation.
The aim of this research line is to develop more insights into the consequences of specific design and measurement choices and to develop good practices and guidelines for the design and visual and statistical analysis of intensive longitudinal data studies. We will do this using different approaches, such as pragmatic experiments (A/B testing) comparing different design choices or measurement choices, simulation studies, and by exploring and comparing different types of visual and statistical analysis techniques for different types of data and research questions. Furthermore, we work on new validation standards and pipelines validating new wearable sensing technology with a specific expertise in physiological measurements (i.e. ECG, PPG, EDA).