Thought level progress tracking boosts clarity and motivation for psychosocial goals
"It Wouldn't Have Been So Apparent to Me": Evaluating How Thought-Level Progress Tracking Supports Psychosocial Goals
Human-Computer Interaction
Summary
People often try to improve their mental and emotional wellbeing by changing how they think. The paper reports on Thought-GPS, a system that helps people see how their thinking changes over time, making it easier to notice progress. When people used Thought-GPS, they felt clearer about how to reach their goals, more motivated to think about their progress, and more engaged in reflecting on their thoughts. This shows that tracking subtle changes in thinking can support personal growth and coping with issues like anxiety.
What this means in practice
- •For mental health app developers: Integrate real-time visual markers of thought progress to enhance user engagement and clarity in cognitive behavioral interventions.$Commercial implications: This enables personalized mental health apps to better support users tracking subtle cognitive changes, improving outcomes and market appeal.
- •For therapy platform designers: Add thought-level progress visualization tools to online therapy environments to help clients reflect more deeply on their psychosocial goals.
Authors
Shiyu Xu, Ruishi Zou, Anna R. Van Meter, Addie Weaver, Emily Mower Provost, Daniel A. Adler
Abstract
We pursue psychosocial goals every day, from coping with anxiety, to pursuing personal growth. While prior research has designed systems for tracking progress towards behavioral goals, fewer studies have focused on progress towards psychosocial goals - and the thinking changes people make to address them. As a first step, we present Thought-GPS, a system that visualizes potential markers of such thought-level progress in-the-moment as users interact with an AI-supported cognitive restructuring intervention. We evaluated Thought-GPS through a mixed-methods single-session study with 30 participants, comparing Thought-GPS with an active control condition without progress markers. We found preliminary evidence that participants using Thought-GPS reported greater clarity about how they might change to pursue their goals, stronger motivation to reflect on goal progress, and greater engagement in that reflection. Participants also reported that progress markers made subtle progress visible, helped them engage in deeper reflection, and connect conversational insights to their personal goals.