J. Gayle Beck, Ph.D. - US grants

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this application is to refine and pilot test a brief Group Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT) to address the symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) following a motor vehicle accident. The application has 2 phases that encompass 3 specific aims. Phase 1 will Consist of completion of the treatment manual for Group CBT for PTSD in MVA survivors (Aim 1). Also included during Phase 1 will be efforts to finalize and empirically test procedures to ensure therapists' adherence and competence in using the treatment manual (including measures to assess adherence and competence - Aim 2). 15 individuals with MVA-reiated PTSD will participate in Phase 1. to be treated in 3 groups of 5 each. Participants will be diagnosed with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and will complete a battery of additional clinician and self-report measures before and after treatment. Phase 1 will be an iterative process across the 3 waves of 5 cases each. After each wave, the treatment manual and measures of adherence and competence will be refined. Phase 2 will involve a randomized pilot study, consisting of 2 treatment conditions: Group CBT and a Minimal Contact Control (MCC) condition. The aim of Phase 2 is to determine if Group CBT produces significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, health care use, and pain-related distress and impairment (Aim 3). 48 individuals with MVA-related PTSD will be randomly assigned to one of the 2 conditions. Outcome will be assessed using clinician measures of PTSD symptoms, anxiety disorders, and depressive disorders. As well, participants will complete questionnaires evaluating PTSD, anxiety, depression, health care utilization, and pain. It is hypothesized that patients with PTSD who receive Group CBT will show greater reductions in PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, health care use, and pain, relative to patients who receive MCC, at post-treatment assessment. Additionally, it is hypothesized that patients who receive Group CBT will maintain these gains at 3-month follow-up. Following participation, individuals in the MCC condition will be offered Group CBT, permitting uncontrolled replication. Examination of intent-to-treat participants will permit initial evaluation of the acceptability of Group CBT. Because MVAs are the single leading cause of PTSD in the general population, this application has the potential to provide a cost-efficient treatment.

This award focuses on examining the effectiveness of using animated pedagogical agents (APAs) as external regulatory agents designed to foster middle school and college students' understanding of complex and challenging science topics (e.g., the circulatory system). Contemporary cognitive and educational research provides evidence that the potential of computer-based learning environments for facilitating learning may be severely undermined by students' inability to regulate several aspects of the learning. For example, students should regulate key cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, social, and affective processes in order to learn about complex and challenging science topics. This research will be conducted in the context of a mixed-initiative intelligent tutoring system called AutoTutor that simulates the discourse patterns and pedagogical strategies of human tutors. The focus of our grant is on conducting interdisciplinary research examining: (1) the role of embedded animated pedagogical agents in collecting data of the complex interactions between cognitive and metacognitive processes during learning about complex science topics with AutoTutor; (2) the effectiveness of animated pedagogical agents as external regulating agents used to detect, trace, model, and foster students' self-regulatory processes during learning about complex science topics with AutoTutor; and (3) the effectiveness of scaffolding methods delivered by animated pedagogical agents in facilitating middle school and college students' selfregulated learning about complex science topics with AutoTutor.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

Obtaining physiological/behavioral data from human subjects in their natural environments is essential to conducting ecologically valid social and behavioral research. While several body area wireless sensor network (BAWSN) systems exist today for physiological data collection, their use has been restricted to controlled settings (laboratories, driving/flying scenarios, etc.); significant noise, motion artifacts, and existence of other uncontrollable confounding factors are the often cited reasons for not using physiological measurements from natural environments. In order to provide scientifically valid data from natural environments, a BAWSN system must meet several unique requirements (1) Stringent data quality without sensing redundancy, (2) Personalization to account for wide between person differences in physiological measurements, and (3) Real-time inferencing to allow for subject confirmation and timely intervention.

Intellectual Merit: In this project, a multidisciplinary team of researchers spanning various computing disciplines and behavioral sciences are developing a general purpose framework called FieldStream that will make it possible for BAWSN systems to provide long term unattended collection of objective, continuous, and reliable physiological/behavioral data from natural environments that can be used for conducting population based scientific studies. FieldStream is being incorporated in two real-life projects ? NIH sponsored AutoSense at Memphis and NSF sponsored Urban Sensing at UCLA, to help validate the assumptions, establish the feasibility of developed solutions, and to uncover new requirements.

Broader Impact: By making it possible to obtain scientifically valid objective data from the field, FieldStream promises to help solve several behavioral problems of critical importance to human society that have remained unanswered for lack of such data.