ABSEM: An agent-based simulator of emotions in mindfulness programs

Among other utilities, expert and intelligent systems can provide estimations similar to the ones from human experts. In this context, agent-based simulators support the prediction of some features of groups of individuals based on the simulation of some autonomous entities called agents. However, the literature lacks the appropriate simulators to simulate the repercussions of mindfulness programs on the emotions of meditators. Mindfulness has proven to be related to several indicators of health and quality of life in the later years. Mindfulness has also proven to be strongly related with certain emotions, but there are different programs for training mindfulness. In this context, the current approach presents an Agent-based Simulator of Emotions in Mindfulness programs (ABSEM). The current approach allows instructors to define different mindfulness programs and simulate their repercussions on the emotions of a group of practitioners with certain features. In this way, these simulations support instructors in selecting an adequate program for a given group of practitioners. In addition, this simulator can also be useful for practitioners because it lets them know an estimation of the repercussions of each mindfulness program. In two different scenarios, the experiments show that the system provides simulated outcomes that are similar to the real ones, when establishing the same input circumstances. The current work distributes ABSEM as an open-source tool. This fact not only assures the reproducibility of the experiments, but also allows researchers and practitioners to use and extend the simulator. Therefore, ABSEM contributes on the application of expert and intelligent systems to the mindfulness field, allowing novel instructors and meditators benefit from the implicit knowledge integrated in the simulator. This system can promote both (a) the use of expert systems for exploring their performance in predicting emotional repercussions from any kind of health intervention, and (b) the practice of mindfulness for repairing negative emotions as a social benefit.