arXiv subjects

Mari Hirano

Publications and source records attributed to Mari Hirano.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Two Modes of Reflection: How Temporal, Spatial, and Social Distances Affect Reflective Writing in Family Caregiving

Writing about personal experiences can improve well-being, but for family caregivers, fixed or user-initiated schedules often miss the right moments. Drawing on Construal Level Theory, we conducted a three-week field study with 47 caregivers using a chatbot that delivered daily reflective writing prompts and captured temporal, spatial, and social contexts. We collected 958 writing entries, resulting in 5,412 coded segments. Our Analysis revealed two reflective modes. Under proximal conditions, participants produced detailed, emotion-rich, and care recipient-focused narratives that supported emotional release. Under distal conditions, they generated calmer, self-focused, and analytic accounts that enabled objective reflection and cognitive reappraisal. Participants described trade-offs: proximity preserved vivid detail but limited objectivity, while distance enabled analysis but risked memory loss. This work contributes empirical evidence of how psychological distances shape reflective writing and proposes design implications for distance-aware Just-in-Time Adaptive Interventions for family caregivers' mental health support.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Examining Input Modalities and Visual Feedback Designs in Mobile Expressive Writing

Expressive writing is an established approach for stress management. Recently, information technologies, such as smartphones, have also been explored for expressive writing. Although mobile interfaces have the potential to support various daily writing activities, interface designs for mobile expressive writing and their effects on stress relief still lack empirical understanding. We examined the interface design of mobile expressive writing by investigating the influence of input modalities and visual feedback designs on usability and perceived cathartic effects through field studies. While our studies confirmed the stress-relieving effects of mobile expressive writing, our results offer important insights into interface design. We found keyboard-based text entry more suited and preferred over voice messages for its privacy and reflective nature. Participants expressed different reasons for preferring different post-writing visual feedback depending on the cause and type of stress. This work advances interface design for mobile expressive writing and deepens understanding of its effects.

cs.HC↗