From intuition to innovation: Empirical illustrations of multimodal measurement in psychotherapy research.

Abstract

Background: This special section underscores the potential of multimodal measurement approaches to transform psychotherapy research. A multimodal approach provides a more comprehensive understanding than any single modality (type of collected information) can provide on its own.

Methods: Traditionally, clinicians and researchers have relied on their intuition, experience, and training to integrate different types of information in a psychotherapy session/treatment. Increasingly, however, computational methods offer a complementary alternative, enabling more automated, data-driven, and reproducible solutions.

Results: The six empirical examples in this special section illustrate the emerging-and often interdisciplinary-methodologies, including text, audio, video, and physiological measures, that are relevant in the psychotherapy setting.

Discussion: While each study addressed distinct research questions and employed unique methodologies, they all demonstrated a commitment to leveraging multimodal measurement and tackling the challenges of integrating diverse data sources.