Challenges and opportunities when using Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) |
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| Coordinator 1 | Professor Florian Keusch (University of Mannheim) |
| Coordinator 2 | Dr Heidi Guyer (RTI International) |
| Coordinator 3 | Professor Bella Struminskaya (Utrecht University) |
The widespread use of smartphones in the general population has led to a renaissance of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), sometimes also called Experience Sampling Method (ESM). The goal of EMAs is to collect intensive longitudinal data with high ecological validity by sending alerts based on predetermined criteria to participants on their smartphone. Participants are then asked to self-report their current subjective (e.g., stress, mood, emotional well-being) and/or objective state (e.g., activities, co-location with others). EMA data can be implemented to obtain additional information beyond survey data, as an evaluation or intervention tool, or on its own. EMA data allow researchers to study between-person differences in daily life across people in various social and physical contexts as well as within-person changes over the course of a day, a week, or another specified period. However, multiple and frequent measurements can be rather burdensome for participants, leading to item nonresponse and attrition. For this session, we invite methodological research that addresses issues of nonparticipation and measurement in EMA studies. We are particularly interested in studies that investigate the effect of different aspects of the research design, for example, the communication with participants, the User Interface of EMA apps, the use of incentives and gamification approaches, providing feedback to participants, etc., on data quality. We also invite presentations of study designs where the requests for self-reports are triggered based on behaviors or states that are inferred from sensors built into smartphones or wearable devices. Such approaches can include the use of geofencing, trip and/or activity detection, smartphone usage behavior-based triggers (e.g., when using a social media app), etc. With the rapid expansion of EMAs in survey research, this session will allow researchers to share their findings and lessons learned to date.