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Mind Habits Emotion Trainer Games For Health 2008
1. MindHabits:
The Development of an
Emotion Trainer Game for
Stress Reduction
Mark Baldwin, PhD
Department of Psychology, McGill University
President, MindHabits Inc.
2. Can a computer game train positive habits
of thought, to build self-confidence and
reduce stress?
Research Background
Game development and marketing
3. Social intelligence – one’s way of thinking about
self and other – is central to human health and
happiness throughout life.
4. Automatic habits of thought
Attention, emotional associations, rumination
8. 6 00 .0 0
3 00 .0 0
Cortisol AUC (arbitrary units)
0 .00
- 3 0 0.0 0
- 6 0 0.0 0
- 6 0 .0 0 - 4 0 .0 0 - 2 0 .00 0 .00 2 0.0 0 4 0.0 0
Re je ction Bia s Sc o re s Dandeneau, Baldwin, et al. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 2007
9. Social
Intelligence and
Social
Neuroscience
research is
investigating
possibilities for
training thought
processes about
self and others.
10. Emotion Training
How might we help
people train
automatic habits of
thought, to boost
self-esteem and self-
confidence, and to
reduce stress?
11. Emotion Training
Similar to Brain Trainers, but instead of
aimed at helping you THINK better; aimed
at helping you FEEL better
12. Emotion Training
ACTIVATING thoughts of acceptance makes it
easier to notice social support in daily life
ASSOCIATING acceptance to cues, including
the self-concept, makes it more likely to come to
mind when needed
INHIBITION TRAINING can help the person
learn to disengage from social threat
15. Results:
Removes attentional bias to threat
Students playing daily while studying become less
stressed about final exam, are less anxious during
exam
Telemarketers playing daily report higher self-
esteem & less stress at the end of the week; have
17% lower levels of stress hormone cortisol; are
more confident and make more sales
(Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
October 2007)
16. Results:
Golf, like many other kinds of performance,
suffers from any distraction due to
evaluative concerns
26 Golfers played the search-for-the-smile
game (or control) before a round of golf
Performed 5.24 strokes better on a round
of golf, after playing the matrix.
(Not yet published)
17. Scientific summary:
Scientific studies demonstrate that
specially-designed computer games can
allow people to practice beneficial patterns
of thought, leading to increased self-
confidence and reduced stress.
18. Toward a Game:
Licensed to MindHabits
TelefilmCanada’s “Great Canadian Video Game
Competition”: Won $1.3 M
Panel of judges:
Yannis Mallat, CEO, Ubisoft Montreal
Ron Moravek, VP & COO, Electronic Arts Canada
Kelly Zmak, President, Radical Entertainment (Vivendi
Universal Games Canada)
Rory Armes, Senior VP and Group General Manager,
EA Black Box and EA Montreal
19. Created the
MindHabits Trainer
www.mindhabits.com
Soon on multiple
platforms, starting with
casual game space
20. Four training games
100+ levels
Five tracker tasks
“Outlook” score tracks progress
Science Lab
Explain how and why
36. Marketing: Distribution
Patent protection: # USPTO 11/122,091
Game out on web
our own portal
Oberon Media (300M gamers)
International distribution deals for PC
MindHabits named one of Top 25 Canadian
IT Up and Comers by Branham Group
37. Marketing: Future Plans
Additional platforms, channels (e.g., B2B)
V2.0: Kids, relationships, self-regulation
Embedding mini-games into other IP
Partnerships (Contact us!):
Games with a focus on wellbeing and health,
particularly although not necessarily psychological
Ideally although not necessarily with a science
base
39. MindHabits: www.MindHabits.com
Matthew Mather, CEO
Fifth successful start-up; previous CEO Lycos Canada
Founder of Immersion Corp – TouchSense in 100’s games
Mark Baldwin
Creator of technology and games,
Two decades of research published in prestigious journals
Rob Gordon, Article19 Group
One of Canada’s hottest casual game developers
Top selling games on market
2000 volunteers
“Gaming 2.0” from all over world
40. Social Intelligence Games
Selected References:
Dandeneau, S.D., Baldwin, M. W., Baccus, J. R., Sakellaropoulo, M., Pruessner, J. C.
(2007, October). Cutting stress off at the pass: Reducing vigilance and responsiveness to
social threat by manipulating attention. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
93(4). 651-666.
Pruessner, J. C., Baldwin, M.W., Dedovic, K., Renwick, R., Mahani, N. K., Lord, C.,
Meaney, M., & Lupien, S. (2005). Self-esteem, locus of control, hippocampal volume, and
cortisol regulation in young and old adulthood. Neuroimage, 28, 815-826.
Dandeneau, S. D. M., & Baldwin, M. W. (2004). The inhibition of socially rejecting
information among people with high versus low self-esteem: The role of attentional bias
and the effects of bias reduction training. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23.
584-602.
Baccus, J. R., Baldwin, M. W., & Packer, D. J. (2004). Increasing implicit self-esteem
through classical conditioning. Psychological Science, 15, 498-502.
Baldwin, M. W. & Kay, A. (2003). Adult attachment and the inhibition of rejection
expectations. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 22, 275-293.
Baldwin, M. W., & Main, K. J. (2001). The cued activation of relational schemas in social
anxiety. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1637-1647.
Baldwin, M. W., & Meunier, J. (1999). The cued activation of attachment relational
schemas. Social Cognition, 17, 209-227.
Baldwin, M. W., & Sinclair, L. (1996). Self-esteem and “if...then” contingencies of
interpersonal acceptance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 1130-1141.
Baldwin, M. W., Keelan, J. P. R., Fehr, B., Enns, V., & Koh-Rangarajoo, E. (1996).
Social cognitive conceptualization of attachment working models: Availability and
accessibility effects. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 94-104.
Baldwin, M. W. (1992). Relational schemas and the processing of social information.
Psychological Bulletin, 112, 461-484.