Towards Technology-Based Interventions for Improving Emotional and Cognitive Control

In this paper, we address designing for the delivery of timely cues to initiate skill-building exercises for improving emotional and cognitive control. We focus on adults with ADHD, as they frequently experience difficulties related to such control. The paper describes the design and current user experience evaluation of TimeOut – a skill-building assistive technology to be used by adults with ADHD to improve long-term mastery of self-regulatory abilities. TimeOut, in its current iteration, consists of a wristband monitoring physiological signals, visualization of these signals, an algorithm to prompt interventions, and the delivery of a skill-building exercise on a mobile phone.