New Measures of Mental State and Behavior Based on Data Collected From Sensors, Smartphones, and the Internet
With the rapid and ubiquitous acceptance of new technologies, algorithms will be used to estimate new measures of mental state and behavior based on digital data. The algorithms will analyze data collected from sensors in smartphones and wearable technology, and data collected from Internet and smartphone usage and activities. In the future, new medical measures that assist with the screening, diagnosis, and monitoring of psychiatric disorders will be available despite unresolved reliability, usability, and privacy issues. At the same time, similar non-medical commercial measures of mental state are being developed primarily for targeted advertising. There are societal and ethical implications related to the use of these measures of mental state and behavior for both medical and non-medical purposes.
The study reported here looked at how two groups of people – one with art expertise and one without – made sense of their encounters with an exhibition of a single artist, the late Paul-Henri Bourguignon. The study builds on previous research using Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology to study how people interpret their arts experiences within the contexts of their everyday lives. Informants were asked to rank-order their selections among the pieces on display according to which had the most impact for them (however they defined impact). Each informant then did a structured qualitative interview focusing on the work he or she chose as most impactful. The researchers looked at thematic elements and other patterns of similarity and difference that arose in the interviews and offer thoughts on how the results of this study may provide insight to those who work in museums.