Publications by authors named "James C Lester"

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are creating new opportunities for personalizing technology-based health interventions to adolescents. This article provides a computer science perspective on how emerging AI technologies-intelligent learning environments, interactive narrative generation, user modeling, and adaptive coaching-can be utilized to model adolescent learning and engagement and deliver personalized support in adaptive health technologies. Many of these technologies have emerged from human-centered applications of AI in education, training, and entertainment.

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Purpose: Accidents and unintentional injuries account for the greatest number of adolescent deaths, often involving use of alcohol and other substances. This article describes the iterative design and development of Interactive Narrative System for Patient-Individualized Reflective Exploration (INSPIRE), a narrative-centered behavior change environment for adolescents focused on reducing alcohol use. INSPIRE is designed to serve as an extension to clinical preventive care, engaging adolescents in a theoretically grounded intervention for health behavior change by leveraging 3D game engine and interactive narrative technologies.

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Background: Alcohol use and binge drinking among adolescents and young adults remain frequent causes of preventable injuries, disease, and death, and there has been growing attention to computer-based modes of intervention delivery to prevent/reduce alcohol use. Research suggests that health interventions grounded in established theory are more effective than those with no theoretical basis. The goal of this study was to conduct a literature review of computer-based interventions (CBIs) designed to address alcohol use among adolescents and young adults (aged 12-21 years) and examine the extent to which CBIs use theories of behavior change in their development and evaluations.

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