Enabling Mobile Device-Based Stimulus Presentation in Biobehavioral Research

描述(申请人提供)：智能手机和平板电脑等高性能移动设备的无处不在，有可能极大地拓宽和改进生物行为科学中使用的数据收集方法。当代移动设备能够提供高度引人入胜的毫秒级精确刺激呈现、反应时间测量和远程数据检索。然而，尽管有这些能力，它们作为研究工具的潜力在很大程度上仍然没有实现，因为目前还没有进行行为研究的端到端解决方案。提出的移动平台范例将是第一个适用于毫秒级精确生物行为研究的完整的移动设备刺激呈现系统。我们的平台将使科学家能够为广泛的基础和临床研究创造引人入胜的、便携的和毫秒级的准确实验和评估。例如，在发展研究中，该平台能够使用这些设备上提供的更自然的反应(如摇晃、旋转和滑动)，将有助于解决幼儿等年龄段的任务完成问题，这些幼儿的运动协调能力和注意力持续时间有限，无法使用传统的台式计算机实验。该平台的灵活性、准确性和低成本也将使其成为临床研究中经常使用的昂贵和僵化的神经认知评估工具的替代品。此外，它还将提供将实验结果安全地上传到基于云的存储的能力 系统并向参与者发出反复提醒，使其非常适合远程数据收集。例如，在通常在广泛地理区域进行的大规模纵向研究中，该平台将能够促进自我管理的评估。在第一阶段，我们将开发该平台的原型(Aim 1)，它能够在苹果的iOS环境(iPhone、iPod和iPad)中运行实验。我们将使用一套全面的基准来证明该平台的计时准确性，这套基准一旦发布，将是第一个测量移动设备用于生物行为科学的计时能力和适宜性的研究(目标2)。最后，我们将通过在NIH资助的两个不同实验室对学龄前儿童和成年人进行小规模研究，对我们的原型进行“真实世界”测试(目标3)。这些研究将使我们能够表征我们的原型的总体适宜性和性能，为第二阶段的进一步开发和更广泛的设备支持奠定基础。该系统的商业化将通过提高从关键人群收集的数据的质量和数量，并启用连续、纵向数据收集的新模式，对生物行为研究产生广泛影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ubiquity of high-performance mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has the potential to significantly broaden and improve the methods of data collection used in the biobehavioral sciences. Contemporary mobile devices are capable of highly engaging and millisecond accurate stimulus presentation, reaction time measurements, and remote data retrieval. Yet despite these capabilities, their potential as a research tool remains largely unrealized because there is no existing end-to-end solution for conducting behavioral research. The proposed Paradigm for Mobile platform will be the first complete stimulus presentation system for mobile devices suitable for millisecond accurate biobehavioral research. Our platform will enable scientists to create engaging, portable, and millisecond accurate experiments and assessments for a wide range of basic and clinical research. For example, in developmental research, the platform's ability to use the more naturalistic responses available on these devices (e.g. shake, spin, and swipe) will help address issues of task completion in age groups such as toddlers whose limited motor coordination and attention span prohibit the use of traditional desktop computer-based experiments. The platform's flexibility, accuracy and low cost will also allow it to serve as a replacement for expensive and inflexible neurocognitive assessment tools often used in clinical research. Further, it will offer the ability to securely upload experiment results to a "cloud" based storage system and issue repeated reminders to participants making it well-suited for remote data collection. For example, in large-scale longitudinal studies, which are often conducted over wide geographical areas, the platform will be able to facilitate self-administered assessments. In Phase I we will develop a prototype of the platform (Aim 1) that is able to run experiments in Apple's iOS environment (for iPhone, iPod and iPad). We will demonstrate the platform's timing accuracy using a comprehensive suite of benchmarks which, when published, will be the first study to measure the timing capabilities and suitability of mobile devices for use in the biobehavioral sciences (Aim 2). Finally, we will conduct "real world" tests of our prototype by running small-scale studies with preschoolers and adults in two different NIH funded laboratories (Aim 3). These studies will allow us to characterize the overall suitability and performance of our prototype, establishing a foundation for further development and broader device support in Phase II. The commercialization of this system would have a broad impact on biobehavioral research by improving the quality and quantity of data collected from key populations, and enabling new modes of continuous, longitudinal data collection.