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People inherently use experiences of their past while imagining their future, a capability that plays a crucial role in mental health.
Resonance is an AI-powered journaling tool designed to enhance this ability by offering AI-generated, action-oriented suggestions for future activities based on the user's own past memories. Suggestions are offered when a new memory is logged and are followed by a prompt for the user to imagine carrying out the suggestion.
In a two-week randomized controlled study (N=55), we found that using Resonance significantly improved mental health outcomes, reducing the users' PHQ8 scores, a measure of current depression, and the effect was independent of the users' prior beliefs in their capacity to savor.
Resonance increased the users' daily positive affect, particularly when they would likely act on the suggestion.
Notably, the effectiveness of the suggestions was higher when they were personal, novel, and referenced the user's logged memories.
Finally, through open-ended feedback, we discuss the factors that encouraged or hindered the use of the tool. We found that users with privacy concerns may limit their usage but still seek the flexibility to engage with AI features, which could ultimately encourage broader adoption of AI-augmented journaling tools designed to improve mental health.