MindHabits:
The Development of an
Emotion Trainer Game for
Stress Reduction
Mark Baldwin, PhD
Department of Psychology, McGill University
President, MindHabits Inc.

 Can a computer game train positive habits
of thought, to build self-confidence and
reduce stress?
 Research Background
 Game development and marketing

 Social intelligence – one’s way of thinking about
self and other – is central to human health and
happiness throughout life.

 Automatic habits of thought
 Attention, emotional associations, rumination

Visual Probe Test

Visual Probe Test

Visual Probe Test

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

 Social
Intelligence and
Social
Neuroscience
research is
investigating
possibilities for
training thought
processes about
self and others.

Emotion Training
 How might we help
people train
automatic habits of
thought, to boost
self-esteem and self-
confidence, and to
reduce stress?

Emotion Training
 Similar to Brain Trainers, but instead of
aimed at helping you THINK better; aimed
at helping you FEEL better

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

Find the smiling, accepting face

Find the 5-petalled flower

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)

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)

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.

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

 Created the
MindHabits Trainer
 www.mindhabits.com
 Soon on multiple
platforms, starting with
casual game space

 Four training games
 100+ levels
 Five tracker tasks
 “Outlook” score tracks progress
 Science Lab
 Explain how and why

Inhibition

Association

Association

Activation

 Trackers: Measurement modules to assess
the player’s current state of mind.

Focus

Look

Stroop

Blink

Self-Report

 Outlook score
is calculated
from trackers;
shows
progress over
time

 Science Lab
section gives
game info and
scientific
background

Marketing: Brand Building
 Media Friendly
 Jan: PC Gamer: 2.6M
 Feb: HomeMaker magazine: 1.9M
 March: Marketplace: 8.1M
 April: Women’s Health: 3.2M
 May: Prevention magazine: 11M

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

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

 www.MindHabits.com
 Mark.Baldwin@mindhabits.com

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

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.