Psychological interventions, especially those leveraging mobile and wireless technologies, often include multiple components that are delivered and adapted on multiple timescales (e.g., coaching sessions adapted monthly based on clinical progress, combined with motivational messages from a mobile device adapted daily based on the person's daily emotional state). The hybrid experimental design (HED) is a new experimental approach that enables researchers to answer scientific questions about the construction of psychological interventions in which components are delivered and adapted on different timescales. These designs involve sequential randomizations of study participants to intervention components, each at an appropriate timescale (e.g., monthly randomization to different intensities of coaching sessions and daily randomization to different forms of motivational messages). The goal of the current manuscript is twofold. The first is to highlight the flexibility of the HED by conceptualizing this experimental approach as a special form of a factorial design in which different factors are introduced at multiple timescales. We also discuss how the structure of the HED can vary depending on the scientific question(s) motivating the study. The second goal is to explain how data from various types of HEDs can be analyzed to answer a variety of scientific questions about the development of multi-component psychological interventions. For illustration we use a completed HED to inform the development of a technology-based weight loss intervention that integrates components that are delivered and adapted on multiple timescales.

翻译：心理干预，尤其是那些利用移动和无线技术的干预，通常包含多个成分，这些成分在多时间尺度上提供和调整（例如，每月根据临床进展调整的辅导课程，同时结合每天根据个人情绪状态调整的移动设备励志消息）。混合实验设计（HED）是一种新的实验方法，使研究人员能够回答关于心理干预构建的科学问题，在这些干预中，成分在不同时间尺度上提供和调整。这些设计涉及对研究参与者进行序贯随机化，以分配到不同的干预成分，每个成分在适当的时间尺度上（例如，每月随机化到不同强度的辅导课程，以及每天随机化到不同形式的励志消息）。当前手稿的目标有两方面。首先是通过将这种实验方法概念化为一种特殊形式的析因设计来强调HED的灵活性，在这种设计中，不同的因素在多个时间尺度上引入。我们还讨论了HED的结构如何因驱动研究的科学问题而异。第二个目标是解释如何分析来自各种类型HED的数据，以回答关于多成分心理干预发展的各种科学问题。为了说明，我们使用一个已完成的HED来指导基于技术的减肥干预的开发，该干预整合了在多时间尺度上提供和调整的多个成分。