Clinical trial NCT06025838: Positive Feedback vs. No-Feedback Games for Behavioral Change
Official title: Positive Feedback vs. No-Feedback Games for Behavioral Change
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Major Depressive Disorder
Low Mood
Lead sponsor: Bard College
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2023-09-06
Enrollment: 160
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 34
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Participants are either assigned to a control (no intervention) condition or to one where they receive positive feedback and are encouraged to specific, positive behavior.
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: We aim to investigate here whether we can develop a reinforcement learning game which provides game-based feedback to encourage positive actions (behaviors) both inside and outside of the game. Does providing positive reward when participants make decisions which are associated with value-based actions (like those in BA) result in different game decisions? We propose that it will increase positive actions in the game. And, secondly, how does it affect short-term behavior (in one week)? We propose that it will increase pro-health activities and may reduce depressive symptoms.

Detailed description: We know that behavior influences mood -- our best interventions to improve mood rely upon the relationship between these. Treatments like this are thought to work in part by helping individuals to increase value-derived behaviors; participants are given guidance which results in an increase of positive behaviors and a decrease of coping behaviors that don't help -- that is, their health-seeking behavior is reinforced while behaviors that diminish health are reduced. In past work, we showed that a text-based game could be used to explore what sort of decisions people would make in certain environments. That game showed associations between in-game behaviors and real-life depressive symptoms and actions. Such work focuses on low-level symptoms of depression -- increasingly common, especially after the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. We aim to investigate here whether we can develop a reinforcement learning game which provides game-based feedback to encourage positive actions (behaviors) both inside and outside of the game.

Thus, the experiment described below and proposed in this application would test the role of positive rewards (positive-feedback) in a dichotomous-choice game, compared to neutral (no-feedback).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 18-34 years old
* Fluent in English
* Based in the United States

Exclusion Criteria:

* None

Primary outcomes:
measure: Depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-8 item)
timeFrame: baseline (T0) - before intervention
measure: Depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-8 item)
timeFrame: one week following intervention (T1)
measure: Day Reconstruction Method (DRM)
timeFrame: baseline (T0) - before intervention
measure: Day Reconstruction Method (DRM)
timeFrame: one week following intervention (T1)
measure: Behavior in study-specific game
timeFrame: baseline (T0)
measure: Motivation to change
timeFrame: baseline (T0) - after intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire (MASQ)
timeFrame: baseline (T0) - before intervention
measure: Mood Ratings
timeFrame: baseline (T0) - before intervention
measure: Mood Ratings
timeFrame: one week following intervention (T1)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Annandale-on-Hudson
country: United States
facility: Online research conducted through Bard College
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: Bard College
name: Justin Dainer-Best, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: