Olga Perski's research group works at the intersection of health psychology, addiction science and digital health. Our work integrates intensive longitudinal measurement, theory development, idiographic science, computational modelling and digital health technologies. The aim is to understand how health behaviours unfold in daily life, and to use this knowledge to develop digital interventions that tailor support to each individual's needs in the moment.
What we study
Health psychology. We study the interaction between mental and physical health, specifically understanding and predicting health behaviours and developing and evaluating behaviour change interventions.
Addictive behaviours. We focus on tobacco smoking, alcohol, cannabis and gambling. We want to understand why people use drugs or gamble, why it is so difficult to quit, and how we can develop and provide access to effective and engaging psychological support.
Digital interventions. We develop and evaluate digital behaviour change interventions (e.g., smartphone apps, websites and wearables), including their integration with human support (hybrid human-digital interventions), with a focus on acceptability, engagement and effectiveness.
Within-person processes. We seek to understand within-person processes which unfold over time (an idiographic perspective) and develop technology-mediated just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) which can provide the right type of support to individuals, when and where they most need it.
Methodology. We use mixed methods, spanning qualitative and quantitative approaches, including causal inference, theory development and refinement (specifically formal and computational modelling), complexity science, artificial intelligence and machine learning, optimisation trials (in particular single case experimental designs) and participatory methods. Open science is central to our research.
Interdisciplinary collaboration. We collaborate closely with computer scientists, programmers, control systems engineers, human-computer interaction researchers and clinical and health psychologists.
Our research projects
Ongoing projects
- Time Matters – Uncovering dynamic mechanisms and optimising the intervention timing across the addictions
- EMASENS – Developing a just-in-time adaptive intervention to prevent smoking lapses
Completed projects
- COMPLAPSE – Improving the precision of behaviour change theories: a dynamic computational model of lapse risk in smokers attempting to stop
For more information, see the Research projects tab.
