A Biofeedback App to Instruct Abdominal Breathing (Breathing-Mentor): Pilot Experiment

Background Deep and slow abdominal breathing is an important skill for the management of stress and pain. However, despite multiple proofs on the effectiveness of biofeedback, most breathing apps remain limited to pacing specific breathing patterns, without sensor feedback on the actual breathing behavior. Objective To fill this gap, an app named Breathing-Mentor was developed. This app combines effective visualization of the instruction with biofeedback on deep abdominal breathing, based on the mobile phone’s accelerometers. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate users’ feedback and breathing behavior during initial contact with the app. Methods To reveal the possible effects of biofeedback, two versions of the mobile app were developed. Both contained the same visual instruction, but only the full version included additional biofeedback. In total, 40 untrained participants were randomly assigned to one of the two versions of the app. They had to follow the app’s instructions as closely as possible for 5 min. Results The group with additional biofeedback showed an increased signal-to-noise ratio for instructed breathing frequency (0.1 Hz) compared with those using visual instruction without biofeedback (F1,37=4.18; P<.048). During this initial contact with the full version, self-reported relaxation effectivity was, however, lower than the group using visual instruction without biofeedback (t37=−2.36; P=.02), probably owing to increased cognitive workload to follow the instruction. Conclusions This study supports the feasibility and usefulness of incorporating biofeedback in the Breathing-Mentor app to train abdominal breathing. Immediate effects on relaxation levels should, however, not be expected for untrained users.

Flipping the Classroom to Teach the Evaluation of Research Articles and the Development of Scientific Literacy

Scientific literacy is a key skill for college students. Flipped classroom techniques provide useful tools for students to learn material outside of the classroom to be applied during class time. In this study, students were assigned homework that entailed watching two video podcasts that explained the process for finding and reading peer-reviewed journal articles. Students then completed a survey corresponding to each video podcast asking about the effectiveness of the video podcast and their satisfaction with the perceived knowledge and skills they learned. In class, students worked in groups to practice the skills taught in the video. One hundred and six students completed both surveys. The results indicate that the students found the video podcasts very helpful in finding and reading the articles (89% Finding, 92% Reading). The students believed that watching the video podcasts would help them complete the in-class assignment (92%), that the information would be useful for other classes (90%), and that they preferred watching (and rewatching) the video podcasts on their own time instead of during class time (52%). The flipped classroom methodologies, specifically video podcasts, provide a formative tool for delivering visual instruction of how students can acquire skills in scientific literacy.

A Biofeedback App to Instruct Abdominal Breathing (Breathing-Mentor): Pilot Experiment (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Deep and slow abdominal breathing is an important skill for the management of stress and pain. However, despite multiple proofs on the effectiveness of biofeedback, most breathing apps remain limited to pacing specific breathing patterns, without sensor feedback on the actual breathing behavior. OBJECTIVE To fill this gap, an app named <italic>Breathing-Mentor</italic> was developed. This app combines effective visualization of the instruction with biofeedback on deep abdominal breathing, based on the mobile phone’s accelerometers. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate users’ feedback and breathing behavior during initial contact with the app. METHODS To reveal the possible effects of biofeedback, two versions of the mobile app were developed. Both contained the same visual instruction, but only the full version included additional biofeedback. In total, 40 untrained participants were randomly assigned to one of the two versions of the app. They had to follow the app’s instructions as closely as possible for 5 min. RESULTS The group with additional biofeedback showed an increased signal-to-noise ratio for instructed breathing frequency (0.1 Hz) compared with those using visual instruction without biofeedback (<italic>F</italic>_1,37=4.18; <italic>P</italic>&lt;.048). During this initial contact with the full version, self-reported relaxation effectivity was, however, lower than the group using visual instruction without biofeedback (<italic>t</italic>₃₇=−2.36; <italic>P</italic>=.02), probably owing to increased cognitive workload to follow the instruction. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the feasibility and usefulness of incorporating biofeedback in the Breathing-Mentor app to train abdominal breathing. Immediate effects on relaxation levels should, however, not be expected for untrained users.

Photographing Imperial Citizenship: The Colonial Office Visual Instruction Committee’s Lanternslide Lectures, 1900–1945

This article traces one of the first attempts at photographing citizenship by examining some of the 7600 images produced for the Colonial Office Visual Instruction Committee’s lanternslide scheme, a series of geography lectures documenting the land and peoples of the British Empire that circulated in classrooms around the world between 1902 and 1945. This unusual government project brought together imperial propaganda and visual instruction to teach children what it meant to look and to feel like imperial citizens. The lectures on India, in particular, point to the speculative nature of COVIC’s project, which sought to predict which populations might pose a threat to the empire and how they might be safely managed and contained through colonial education. By reading COVIC’s photographs and texts against contemporaneous visual culture in the empire, the article analyses the inconsistencies in photographing imperial citizenship amongst the more recognizable visual categories of race, class and gender.