Regression-based approach to anxiety estimation of spider phobics during behavioural avoidance tasks
Publication date
2025-07-18
Document type
Preprint
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
arXiv
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
Phobias significantly impact the quality of life of affected persons. Two methods of assessing anxiety responses are questionnaires and behavioural avoidance tests (BAT). While these can be used in a clinical environment they only record momentary insights into anxiety measures. In this study, we estimate the intensity of anxiety during these BATs, using physiological data collected from unobtrusive, wrist-worn sensors. Twenty-five participants performed four different BATs in a single session, while periodically being asked how anxious they currently are. Using heart rate, heart rate variability, electrodermal activity, and skin temperature, we trained regression models to predict anxiety ratings from three types of input data: (1) using only physiological signals, (2) adding computed features (e.g., min, max, range, variability), and (3) computed features combined with contextual task information. Adding contextual information increased the effectiveness of the model, leading to a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.197 and a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.041. Overall, this study shows, that data obtained from wearables can continuously provide meaningful estimations of anxiety, which can assist in therapy planning and enable more personalised treatment.
Description
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Accepted version
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