AMBULANT ASSESSMENT - COMPUTER-ASSISTED D ATA-ACQUISITION UNDER NATURAL CONDITIONS

Computer-assisted data acquisition under naturalistic conditions is st ill an exception in psychology as compared to medicine. In differentia l and clinical psychology, self-report questionnaires and diaries are employed if field studies are carried out at all. A number of devices are available for ambulatory monitoring and assessment: programmable p ocket PC and electronic diaries, speech recording systems, and multi-c hannel monitoring systems for physiological functions. Assessment stra tegies relating to basic and applied research are discussed here. Comp uter-assisted data acquisition has certain advantages with respect to programming the sequences of questions and timing. Ambulatory assessme nt provides new approaches to symptom-context analysis and contingency analysis under naturalistic conditions. Acceptance and compliance, re activity phenomena, and reproducibility are also discussed.