How happy are you right now?
Single-item measures dominate #ESM / #EMA.
Fast. Intuitive. Low burden.
But… how reliable are they really? #m-Path research suggests that a large share of within-person variance may be noise...
👉 Read more: m-path.io/blog/from-pa...
Most #EMA / #ESM studies rely on snapshots 📸
But experience is continuous!
What if real insights live *between* measurements? 📉
Dr. Leonie Cloos used #m-Path’s continuous line item to collect affective intensity profiles in everyday life:
blog.m-path.io/blog/blog-1/...
Hoe denken jongeren over hun emoties — en wat doet dat met hun welzijn? Voor mijn NWO Vidi project zoeken we (@domimaciejewski.bsky.social & @charlottev.bsky.social) een PhD-kandidaat die dit samen met ons gaat uitzoeken! 🎓 Solliciteer voor 27 april!
👉 tiu.nu/23638
@tesc-tilburgu.bsky.social
@eeskevanroekel.bsky.social @charlottev.bsky.social & myself are recruiting a PhD student on momentary emotion beliefs and well-being in adolescents (includes ESM & qualitative methods). Position requires Dutch (for data collection). Happy to answer questions!
👉 Apply: tiu.nu/23638 (27 april 2026)
🙏 Thanks Whitney!
Thanks for the shout-out Kaitlyn! 🙏
Why do participants stop responding in #ESM / #EMA studies? 📱🔔
Average compliance is about 7️⃣9️⃣%, but that hides massive variation.
Our new m-Path blog reviews predictors of response compliance: study design, incentives, participant traits, and time effects.
🔗 blog.m-path.io/blog/blog-1/...
Perspective:
Open-ended responses can improve ESM data by grounding it in real-world experiences and phenomena as they are experienced in everyday life. Handbooks and guidelines on ESM should include sections on collecting and analyzing open-ended text items.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Join us in beautiful Dubrovnik for the XVII Dubrovnik Conference on Cognitive Science (21–24 May 2026)! This year’s theme focuses on adaptation and its limits across multiple timescales, individual differences, and mental health. Abstracts from all areas of cogsci welcome!
Visit: ducog.cecog.eu
✍️ New m-Path blogpost!
Should #ESM / #EMA researchers show participants' previous rating? 🎚️
We tested three response formats in a real-world EMA study. One clearly outperformed the others, with consequences for reliability and affect dynamics.
👉 Read the blog: blog.m-path.io/blog/blog-1/... 📱
more empirical evidence that the mean (and SD) are hard to beat...
Full paper: psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...
#beatthemean #vanquishthevariance #affectdynamics
m-Path blogpost time! 📝
Should you gamify your #ESM / #EMA study? 🎮
A cautionary tale on the use of virtual coins, streaks and instant rewards to boost response compliance in intensive longitudinal research…
👉 Read the blog: blog.m-path.io/blog/blog-1/....
📣 We are excited to share that a new paper by Eisele & colleagues has been accepted in Psychological Assessment: “The Distracted Participant? Experience Sampling Response Behavior and Participant Disturbance in Social Situations.”
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Are you using experience sampling/ mobile sensing or are interested in incorporating these naturalistic methods? Are you going to SPSP? Are you 0-6 years post PhD?
Sign up to join the early career mentoring session at 4:30 PM on Friday 02/27! www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4EAB...
I would like to start a veridicality movement in clinical psychology. I've realized this is my primary concern with network models. We *want* them to convey information flow and dynamics, but they're just lag-1 regression models at (relatively) glacial time scales. They don't reflect what we want.
Thrilled to announce the Oxford Psychological Networks Summer School (OxPNS)!
This is the first-ever psychological network analysis workshop in the UK, to be held in magical Oxford from June 22-26, 2026.
To apply and for more information, please visit: oxfordpns.com
A brief thread 🧵
☕ Time for a new #m-Path blog post!
📱🤔 A classic #ESM / #EMA dilemma: Own smartphone or research-dedicated device?
It sounds trivial, but this choice subtly shapes how people respond. A rarely cited paper tested both, with non-obvious takeaways.
👉 Full breakdown: blog.m-path.io/blog/blog-1/...
Well deserved!! 👏
We’re launching a bi-weekly m-Path blog on #ESM / #EMA measurement, new papers & showcases.
🗓️ Every 2 weeks (Wed).
First up: item quality.
A paper by @gudruneisele.bsky.social introduces ESM-Q: a consensus checklist for good momentary items.
👉 Read the blog: blog.m-path.io/blog/our-blo...
Line chart of Google search interest for “Christmas gift wife” and “Christmas gift husband” from November 18 to December 24. Bold lines show the average pattern across 2020–2024, while lighter shaded lines represent individual years. Shaded areas highlight which term has higher search interest at each point in time. The chart shows that searches for gifts for wives peak later in December than searches for gifts for husbands.
🎄 Hope you’ve got all your presents ready 💝
Google search interest shows a stable pattern:
🎅 “Christmas gift wife” peaks just before Christmas Eve
🎅 “Christmas gift husband” peaks much earlier
#MerryChristmas to all of you! 🎁
📈 Google Trends (Nov 18–Dec 24, 2020–2024)
#dataviz #ggplot2
Cool study in JAMA Psychiatry confirms what many have suspected for a while: PHQ (depression questionnaire) instructions are widely misinterpreted by patients. It is unfortunate that a questionnaire as shitty as PHQ-9 has become so ingrained & ubiquitous
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
New paper out in Obesity Reviews #openaccess: Mobile interventions to promote healthier lifestyles are popular, but they risk widening existing health inequalities, and this already starts at intervention uptake!
Work funded by @ehps.bsky.social.
Read more: doi.org/10.1111/obr....
PS: The app also look great in Chinese 🍜!
However, they showcase m-Path can be the alternative:
✔️ Full researcher independence in developing the app
✔️ Flexible building blocks they can fully tailor
✔️ Fast, theory-driven EMI development
✔️ A validated end product that outlives a single project or grant
In their review of 149 mental health apps, only 28.9% were publicly available and just *8.3%* could be adapted!
This highlights :
❌ Single-study apps are often not shared
❌ Prototypes aren’t flexible or maintainable
❌ Costly developer dependence
❌ Content that can’t be adapted afterward
📑 New paper by Stephanie Wong et al. captures exactly why m-Path exists.
A phased, user-centered study showing how EMIs can be built quickly, affordably, theory-informed, and at scale, and they used m-Path as their no-code platform.
What struck me was why they needed a platform like ours 👇:
Thanks! Probably at APS indeed!
Almost Simpson’s paradox!
