eMOTION: Examining Affective Mechanisms in Physical Activity Engagement
June 23, 2025 updated by: Genevieve Dunton, University of Southern California
Using Real-Time Data Capture to Examine Affective Mechanisms as Mediators of Physical Activity Adherence in Interventions
This early-phase trial will test intervention strategies to influence affective mechanisms underlying physical activity and determine whether changes in those mechanisms result in change in physical activity behavior among inactive adults who are overweight or obese.
Study Overview
Status
Recruiting
Conditions
Detailed Description
This ORBIT model phase 1 trial will examine whether affective mechanisms (1) can be experimentally manipulated in real-world settings; and (2) mediate the relationship between interventions and physical activity behavior.
A novel physical activity intervention will be optimized by efficiently disentangling the effects of its core component and two enhancement components on affective mechanisms associated with physical activity engagement.
Study Type
Interventional
Enrollment (Estimated)
280
Phase
- Not Applicable
Contacts and Locations
This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.
Study Contact
- Name: Rachel C Lyons, MS
- Phone Number: 3175187670
- Email: rclyons@usc.edu
Study Contact Backup
- Name: Micaela Hewus, MPH
- Phone Number: 323-442-7304
- Email: micaelag@usc.edu
Study Locations
-
-
California
-
Los Angeles, California, United States, 90032
- Recruiting
- University of Southern California
-
Contact:
- Rachel C Lyons, MS
- Phone Number: 3175187670
- Email: rclyons@usc.edu
-
Contact:
- Micaela Hewus, MPH
- Phone Number: 323-442-8224
- Email: micaelag@usc.edu
-
-
Participation Criteria
Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.
Eligibility Criteria
Ages Eligible for Study
- Adult
- Older Adult
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Yes
Description
Inclusion criteria:
- Aged ≥ 18 years
- Reside in the United States
- Self-reported BMI ≥ 25
- Current structured physical activity engagement < 60 minutes per week
- Own a personal smartphone device
- Reside in an area with Internet or Wi-Fi connectivity during the study period
- Able to speak and read in English
- Interested and willing to start a physical activity program
- Willing to wear a Fitbit Versa smartwatch provided by the study team everyday continuously (including at work and during physical activity), in place of any Fitbits or smartwatches previously worn, for the duration of the study period
- Able to read the small font on a smartwatch screen without glasses, or willing to carry reading glasses during physical activity for the purpose of reading the smartwatch screen
Exclusion Criteria:
- Inability to provide informed consent due to cognitive disability
- Inability to engage in one or more key treatment components, including those with medical conditions that preclude physical activity engagement or who cannot wear an accelerometer on the wrist or answer brief surveys on the smartwatch for any reason
- Current pregnancy
- Referred to the study by another participant or from Reddit.
Study Plan
This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.
How is the study designed?
Design Details
- Primary Purpose: Prevention
- Allocation: Randomized
- Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
- Masking: Triple
Arms and Interventions
Participant Group / Arm |
Intervention / Treatment |
|---|---|
|
Experimental: Affect (no enhancements) > Intensity
Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
No enhancements are added to the standard mHealth intervention.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
|
|
Experimental: Intensity > Affect (no enhancements)
Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
No enhancements are added to the standard mHealth intervention.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
|
|
Active Comparator: Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity
Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks.
In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in both SAVOR and TYPE/CONTEXT enhancements to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition.
Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
TYPE/CONTEXT augments intervention effects by providing tailored recommendations for activity types and contexts that satisfy personally-important psychological needs as rated by each participant at baseline.
Ratings from a crowdsourced panel of adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk will be used to determine the potential for specific activity types and contexts to satisfy psychological needs; our tailoring algorithm will then recommend the corresponding activity type or context while accounting for reported constraints (e.g., ability, access).
These details will be incorporated into a tailored recommendation provided to participants each Sunday as they make activity plans for the upcoming week.
Specifically, the program will randomly select either type or context (i.e., location, audio, social) recommendations and will rotate every two weeks.
For TYPE, participants' top 3 activity types are recommended; for CONTEXT, participants' top 3 activity contexts are recommended.
SAVOR implements a brief savoring exercise on the smartphone that takes place either after the planned physical activity session or during the evening goal session (after the self-monitoring module).
Participants will respond to questions that are intended to enhance and prolong positive experiences during physical activity.
To trigger attentional deployment, a common savoring strategy that involves intensifying experiences by focusing on them, participants will answer three open-ended prompts.
These prompts are drawn from a prompt pool with slightly varied wording to promote a sense of novelty.
Savoring prompts will rotate daily and have a day lag built in every week (i.e., Week 1 Monday Savoring Prompts are Week 2 Tuesday Savoring Prompts).
|
|
Active Comparator: Intensity > Affect (+ SAVOR + TYPE/CONTEXT)
Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in both SAVOR and TYPE/CONTEXT enhancements to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
TYPE/CONTEXT augments intervention effects by providing tailored recommendations for activity types and contexts that satisfy personally-important psychological needs as rated by each participant at baseline.
Ratings from a crowdsourced panel of adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk will be used to determine the potential for specific activity types and contexts to satisfy psychological needs; our tailoring algorithm will then recommend the corresponding activity type or context while accounting for reported constraints (e.g., ability, access).
These details will be incorporated into a tailored recommendation provided to participants each Sunday as they make activity plans for the upcoming week.
Specifically, the program will randomly select either type or context (i.e., location, audio, social) recommendations and will rotate every two weeks.
For TYPE, participants' top 3 activity types are recommended; for CONTEXT, participants' top 3 activity contexts are recommended.
SAVOR implements a brief savoring exercise on the smartphone that takes place either after the planned physical activity session or during the evening goal session (after the self-monitoring module).
Participants will respond to questions that are intended to enhance and prolong positive experiences during physical activity.
To trigger attentional deployment, a common savoring strategy that involves intensifying experiences by focusing on them, participants will answer three open-ended prompts.
These prompts are drawn from a prompt pool with slightly varied wording to promote a sense of novelty.
Savoring prompts will rotate daily and have a day lag built in every week (i.e., Week 1 Monday Savoring Prompts are Week 2 Tuesday Savoring Prompts).
|
|
Active Comparator: Affect (+SAVOR) > Intensity
Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks.
In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the SAVOR enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition.
Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
SAVOR implements a brief savoring exercise on the smartphone that takes place either after the planned physical activity session or during the evening goal session (after the self-monitoring module).
Participants will respond to questions that are intended to enhance and prolong positive experiences during physical activity.
To trigger attentional deployment, a common savoring strategy that involves intensifying experiences by focusing on them, participants will answer three open-ended prompts.
These prompts are drawn from a prompt pool with slightly varied wording to promote a sense of novelty.
Savoring prompts will rotate daily and have a day lag built in every week (i.e., Week 1 Monday Savoring Prompts are Week 2 Tuesday Savoring Prompts).
|
|
Active Comparator: Intensity > Affect (+SAVOR)
Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the SAVOR enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
SAVOR implements a brief savoring exercise on the smartphone that takes place either after the planned physical activity session or during the evening goal session (after the self-monitoring module).
Participants will respond to questions that are intended to enhance and prolong positive experiences during physical activity.
To trigger attentional deployment, a common savoring strategy that involves intensifying experiences by focusing on them, participants will answer three open-ended prompts.
These prompts are drawn from a prompt pool with slightly varied wording to promote a sense of novelty.
Savoring prompts will rotate daily and have a day lag built in every week (i.e., Week 1 Monday Savoring Prompts are Week 2 Tuesday Savoring Prompts).
|
|
Active Comparator: Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT) > Intensity
Participants receive affect-based goals for the first 8-weeks.
In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition.
Participants then cross-over to receive intensity-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
TYPE/CONTEXT augments intervention effects by providing tailored recommendations for activity types and contexts that satisfy personally-important psychological needs as rated by each participant at baseline.
Ratings from a crowdsourced panel of adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk will be used to determine the potential for specific activity types and contexts to satisfy psychological needs; our tailoring algorithm will then recommend the corresponding activity type or context while accounting for reported constraints (e.g., ability, access).
These details will be incorporated into a tailored recommendation provided to participants each Sunday as they make activity plans for the upcoming week.
Specifically, the program will randomly select either type or context (i.e., location, audio, social) recommendations and will rotate every two weeks.
For TYPE, participants' top 3 activity types are recommended; for CONTEXT, participants' top 3 activity contexts are recommended.
|
|
Active Comparator: Intensity > Affect (+TYPE/CONTEXT)
Participants receive intensity-based goals for the first 8-weeks, then cross-over to receive affect-based goals for the second 8-weeks.
In addition to the standard mHealth intervention, participants engage in the TYPE/CONTEXT enhancement to augment the treatment effects of the affect-based goals condition.
|
On days participants plan to exercise, they engage in two daily goal sessions (morning and evening).
Morning sessions provide an activity goal for the day and ask the participant to create a plan, anticipate barriers, and brainstorm solutions for achieving this goal.
The affect-based goal condition asks participants to engage in either (1) a type (50% of daily goals) or (2) a context (50% of daily goals) of physical activity that allows them to experience positive affect.
Goals focused on context are randomly generated to suggest that the participant performs activity (1) in a place; (2) in a social situation; or (3) while listening to something that makes them feel good.
The intensity-based goal condition asks participants to maintain a certain target heart rate range during physical activity.
Starting heart rate reflects the approximate age-adjusted heart rate max, with goals progressively increasing from 55% to 70% heart rate max.
TYPE/CONTEXT augments intervention effects by providing tailored recommendations for activity types and contexts that satisfy personally-important psychological needs as rated by each participant at baseline.
Ratings from a crowdsourced panel of adults on Amazon Mechanical Turk will be used to determine the potential for specific activity types and contexts to satisfy psychological needs; our tailoring algorithm will then recommend the corresponding activity type or context while accounting for reported constraints (e.g., ability, access).
These details will be incorporated into a tailored recommendation provided to participants each Sunday as they make activity plans for the upcoming week.
Specifically, the program will randomly select either type or context (i.e., location, audio, social) recommendations and will rotate every two weeks.
For TYPE, participants' top 3 activity types are recommended; for CONTEXT, participants' top 3 activity contexts are recommended.
|
What is the study measuring?
Primary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
|
Physical Activity: Step Count
Time Frame: Daily total for weeks 1-19
|
Daily steps will be calculated from minute-level accelerometer data.
Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatches with internal accelerometers are worn for the duration of the study period, except while bathing or charging.
Only days with sufficient wear time (defined as ≥ 10-hours of valid data, where no more than 20-minutes per hour has a consecutive step count of zero) are used for analysis.
|
Daily total for weeks 1-19
|
|
Physical Activity: Minutes
Time Frame: Daily total for weeks 1-19
|
Daily minutes of light, moderate, and vigorous physical activity will be calculated from minute-level accelerometer data.
Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatches with internal accelerometers are worn for the duration of the study period, except while bathing or charging.
Only days with sufficient wear time (defined as ≥ 10-hours of valid data, where no more than 20-minutes per hour has a consecutive step count of zero) are used for analysis.
|
Daily total for weeks 1-19
|
Secondary Outcome Measures
Outcome Measure |
Measure Description |
Time Frame |
|---|---|---|
|
Affective Response
Time Frame: Max 2 per 60-min physical activity period during weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
|
Event-contingent ecological momentary assessment (EMA) check-ins sent to the smartwatch during physical activity measure affective response.
Event-contingent EMA are triggered when Fitbit sensors detect physical activity via moving average heart rate.
A ≥30-minute buffer separates the first and second EMA during a single physical activity bout.
A maximum of two event-contingent EMA will be sent within any given 60-minute period.
Participants are asked to safely pause their activity to answer seven items about their affective response using a 5-point bipolar Likert Scale.
Five items (Energetic-Fatigued, Happy-Discouraged, Relaxed-Tense, Excited-Bored, Satisfied-Frustrated) are drawn from Russell's Circumplex Model of Affect; one (Good-Bad) represents core affective valence; and one (Proud-Embarrassed) represents self-conscious emotion.
|
Max 2 per 60-min physical activity period during weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
|
|
Affectively-Charged Motivations
Time Frame: Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
|
Affectively-charged motivations for physical activity are measured during the morning goal session via REDCap.
A text message alerts participants to complete the morning goal session on their smartphone.
A single item from the Attraction-Antipathy subscale of the AFFEXX measures affectively-charged motivation by asking, "How do you feel about doing physical activity today?".
Participants select a response using a Visual Analogue Scale ranging from 0 (Dread) to 100 (Excited).
|
Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
|
|
Anticipated Affect
Time Frame: Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
|
Anticipated affect is measured during the morning goal session via REDCap.
A text message alerts participants to complete the morning goal session on their smartphone.
A single item asks, "How do you expect to feel during physical activity today?".
Participants select a response using a Visual Analogue Scale ranging from 0 (Miserable) to 100 (Thrilled).
|
Up to once daily for weeks 2-9 and weeks 12-19
|
Collaborators and Investigators
This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.
Collaborators
Investigators
- Principal Investigator: Genevieve F Dunton, PhD MPH, University of Southern California
Study record dates
These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.
Study Major Dates
Study Start (Actual)
August 14, 2024
Primary Completion (Estimated)
January 1, 2027
Study Completion (Estimated)
June 30, 2027
Study Registration Dates
First Submitted
August 16, 2024
First Submitted That Met QC Criteria
August 21, 2024
First Posted (Actual)
August 26, 2024
Study Record Updates
Last Update Posted (Actual)
June 27, 2025
Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria
June 23, 2025
Last Verified
June 1, 2025
More Information
Terms related to this study
Additional Relevant MeSH Terms
Other Study ID Numbers
- UP-22-00332
- R01CA272933 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)
Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?
NO
Drug and device information, study documents
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product
No
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product
No
This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.