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Diversity, equity, and inclusivity in observational ambulatory assessment: Recommendations from two decades of Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) research

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Abstract

Ambient audio sampling methods such as the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) have become increasingly prominent in clinical and social sciences research. These methods record snippets of naturalistically assessed audio from participants’ daily lives, enabling novel observational research about the daily social interactions, identities, environments, behaviors, and speech of populations of interest. In practice, these scientific opportunities are equaled by methodological challenges: researchers’ own cultural backgrounds and identities can easily and unknowingly permeate the collection, coding, analysis, and interpretation of social data from daily life. Ambient audio sampling poses unique and significant challenges to cultural humility, diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) in scientific research that require systematized attention. Motivated by this observation, an international consortium of 21 researchers who have used ambient audio sampling methodologies created a workgroup with the aim of improving upon existing published guidelines. We pooled formally and informally documented challenges pertaining to DEI in ambient audio sampling from our collective experience on 40+ studies (most of which used the EAR app) in clinical and healthy populations ranging from children to older adults. This article presents our resultant recommendations and argues for the incorporation of community-engaged research methods in observational ambulatory assessment designs looking forward. We provide concrete recommendations across each stage typical of an ambient audio sampling study (recruiting and enrolling participants, developing coding systems, training coders, handling multi-linguistic participants, data analysis and interpretation, and dissemination of results) as well as guiding questions that can be used to adapt these recommendations to project-specific constraints and needs.

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Data Availability

Methods resources (e.g., sample coding systems, sample informed consent documents, sample coding and transcription guidelines) accompanying this manuscript may be found on the Open Science Framework EAR repository at: https://osf.io/n2ufd/wiki/home/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are deeply grateful to the numerous participants who have shared soundbites of their lives with us in research studies over the years, and to the research assistants in our labs who have dedicated thousands of hours to the transcription, coding, and processing of these data. We would especially like to thank Danbi Kim, Dennis Delgadillo, Shahed Ebesh and Kashvi Mullick, current ambient audio coders who were interviewed for this manuscript.

Funding

The research informing the recommendations reported in this manuscript was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health under grants R01MH125414, R56AG068098, R01CA262719, R01HD104187, R01MH105379, R01AG078361, R01MH108641, R01HD104187 (NIH) K01AG065485, 1F32HL154751 and T32ES007018, as well as by the Mind and Life Institute under a 1440 Award, an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT190100255), and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight grant.

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Author notes

  1. Deanna M. Kaplan and Colin A. Tidwell equal contribution and shared first authorship.

  2. Eva Alisic, Burcu Demiray, Michelle Bruni, Selena Evora, Julia A. Gajewski-Nemes, Alessandra Macbeth, Shaminka N. Mangelsdorf, Jennifer S. Mascaro, Kyle S. Minor, Rebecca N. Noga, Nicole R. Nugent, Angelina J. Polsinelli, Kelly E. Rentscher, Annie W. Resnikoff, Megan L. Robbins, Richard B. Slatcher, Alma B. Tejada-Padron equal contribution and shared co-authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Deanna M. Kaplan & Jennifer S. Mascaro

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA

    Colin A. Tidwell, Alma B. Tejeda-Padron & Matthias R. Mehl

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada

    Joanne M. Chung

  4. Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Eva Alisic

  5. Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Burcu Demiray

  6. Department of Psychology, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, USA

    Michelle Bruni & Megan L. Robbins

  7. Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, USA

    Selena Evora

  8. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA

    Julia A. Gajewski-Nemes

  9. Department of Psychology, Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, USA

    Alessandra Macbeth

  10. Center for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Shaminka N. Mangelsdorf

  11. Department of Psychology, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, USA

    Kyle S. Minor

  12. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA

    Rebecca N. Noga

  13. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, USA

    Nicole R. Nugent

  14. Department of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, USA

    Angelina J. Polsinelli

  15. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA

    Kelly E. Rentscher

  16. Department of Psychology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA

    Annie W. Resnikoff

  17. Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, USA

    Richard B. Slatcher

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Correspondence to Deanna M. Kaplan.

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Kaplan, D.M., Tidwell, C.A., Chung, J.M. et al. Diversity, equity, and inclusivity in observational ambulatory assessment: Recommendations from two decades of Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) research. Behav Res (2023). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-023-02293-0

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