Improving Physical Activity mHealth Interventions: Development of a Computational Model of Self-Efficacy Theory to Define Adaptive Goals for Exercise Promotion

Table 1

Decision rules and rationale for setting new weekly goals.

Condition	Goal for the new training period (newGOAL)	Rationale for the goal setting strategy based on the relevant literature [15, 28]
(PA+) & (SE+)	Increase PA goal	Setting a harder goal is challenging but doable for the person, because it is in line with the physical capabilities and supported by strong SE beliefs
(PA+) & (SE-)	Maintain the same PA goal	Maintaining the same goal is a strategy to reinforce the self-efficacy beliefs through the achievement of the same goal and thus trains the person for successive more difficult goals
(PA-) & (SE+)	Maintain the same PA goal	Maintaining the same goal is a strategy to avoid disappointing motivations and self-efficacy beliefs, thus provides the person with a further opportunity to achieve a goal corresponding to his/her SE beliefs
(PA-) & (SE-)	Decrease PA goal	Setting an easier goal is a strategy to allow the person to become familiar with the behaviour through an easier task and reinforce self-efficacy beliefs through more likely successful experiences