Preserving the self through assistive technology

People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) may forget details of their lives, which makes it difficult for them to interact with people in new situations. However, those who have lost cognitive memory appear to retain their established self-sentiments; despite not remembering details about their lives, they still feel like themselves, and continue to act and react on that basis. This paper reports on a study which designed a cellphone-based virtual interaction program (VIPCare) that models how to interact with persons with ADRD based on that person’s self-sentiments, rather than cognitive memory. Researchers interviewed family members of persons with ADRD living in a long term residential care facility to collect patients’ personal histories. Using the evaluation, potency, and activity dimensions of Affect Control Theory, researchers used this information to formulate a self-sentiment profile for residents with ADRD and programmed that profile into the VIPCare application. The application is designed to use that profile to simulate affectively-intelligent social interactions that reduce deflection for persons with ADRD. Simulations model how to tailor interaction to each unique resident in ways that do not produce deflection from established sentiments and, thus, negative emotions. Our study reports on the process of developing self-sentiment profiles and the implementation and evaluation of the VIPCare application as a support program for staff.