Francis Linda, Ghafurian Moojan
Department of Criminology and Sociology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, United States.
Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Front Sociol. 2024 Feb 5;9:1331315. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1331315. eCollection 2024.
Assistive technology is increasingly used to support the physical needs of differently abled persons but has yet to make inroads on support for cognitive or psychological issues. This gap is an opportunity to address another-the lack of contribution from theoretical social science that can provide insights into problems that cannot be seen. Using Affect Control Theory (ACT), the current project seeks to close that gap with an artificially intelligent application to improve interaction and affect for people with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Using sociological theory, it models interactions with persons with ADRD based on self-sentiments, rather than cognitive memory, and informs a cellphone-based assistive tool called VIPCare for supporting caregivers.
Staff focus groups and interviews with family members of persons with ADRD in a long-term residential care facility collected residents' daily needs and personal histories. Using ACT's evaluation, potency, and activity dimensions, researchers used these data to formulate a self-sentiment profile for each resident and programmed that profile into the VIPCare application. VIPCare used that profile to simulate affectively intelligent social interactions with each unique resident that reduce deflection from established sentiments and, thus, negative emotions.
We report on the data collection to design the application, develop self-sentiment profiles for the resident, and generate assistive technology that applies a sociological theory of affect to real world management of interaction, emotion, and mental health.
By reducing trial and error in learning to engage people with dementia, this tool has potential to smooth interaction and improve wellbeing for a population vulnerable to distress.
辅助技术越来越多地用于满足不同能力者的身体需求，但在支持认知或心理问题方面尚未取得进展。这一差距为解决另一个问题提供了契机，即理论社会科学缺乏贡献，而社会科学能够洞察那些不易察觉的问题。本项目运用情感控制理论（ACT），旨在通过一种人工智能应用来弥合这一差距，以改善阿尔茨海默病及相关痴呆症（ADRD）患者的互动和情感体验。该项目运用社会学理论，基于自我情感而非认知记忆对与ADRD患者的互动进行建模，并为一款名为VIPCare的手机辅助工具提供信息，以支持护理人员。
在一家长期居住护理机构中，工作人员焦点小组以及对ADRD患者家属的访谈收集了患者的日常需求和个人经历。研究人员利用ACT的评价、效能和活动维度，运用这些数据为每位患者制定自我情感档案，并将该档案编入VIPCare应用程序。VIPCare利用该档案模拟与每位独特患者的情感智能社交互动，减少与既定情感的偏差，从而减少负面情绪。
我们报告了为设计该应用程序而进行的数据收集情况，为患者制定自我情感档案，以及开发一种将情感社会学理论应用于互动、情感和心理健康实际管理的辅助技术。
通过减少与痴呆症患者互动时的反复尝试，该工具有可能使互动更加顺畅，并改善易受困扰人群的幸福感。
