Masters Thesis Defense “Use of Adaptive Mobile Applications to Improve Mindfulness” By Wiehan Boshoff

Committee:  Drs. Michael Raymer, Advisor, Subhashini Ganapathy, Co-Advisor, and Mateen Rizki

ABSTRACT:

Mindfulness is the state of retaining awareness of what is happening at the current point in time. It has been used in multiple forms to reduce stress, anxiety, and even depression. Promoting Mindfulness can be done in various ways, but research indicates more and more that people tend to lean towards breathing exercises as a means to reach a mindful state. Studies have showcased that breathing can be used as a tool to promote brain control, specifically in the auditory cortex region. This is important as this is suspected of being the region in the brain responsible for the production of symptoms associated with Tinnitus. Mobile Applications have become an increasingly popular tool, due to its accessibility, that can be used to promote mindfulness, and as a result help patients cope better with Tinnitus. Using applications to guide patient’s breathing patterns could be a more desirable and effective method to attaining a more mindful state. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of such an application, and how the application can modified to be adaptive towards each individual user.