Product Description
Can computer games be good for you, beyond just being fun? Recent research in scientific psychology shows that specially-designed computer games can allow the user to practice positive habits of thought, toward developing a more positive outlook. Finding a smiling face in a crowd, for example, involves controlling one’s attention to focus on some kinds of information and filter out other kinds: Practicing this skill has been shown to lead to increases in self-confidence and reductions in stress. The author, Mark Baldwin, PhD, of McGill University and Mindhabits Inc., explains how it is that simple but effective games can train the mind and build a more positive outlook.
About the Author
Mark Baldwin is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at McGill
University. He is also founder of Mindhabits Inc., a company that
develops videogames based on psychological science. After completing his
PhD at the University of Waterloo in 1984 he held postdoctoral
fellowships for several years at the University of Michigan and the
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto. Then he took a break from
academia to write and co-host a Canadian children's television series,
Camp Cariboo. He returned to the lab and to teaching at the University
of Winnipeg in 1990, before joining McGill's faculty in 1998. He has
published dozens of scientific articles, edited the book Interpersonal
Cognition, and recently co-authored a chapter on the measurement of
implicit cognition about relationships. He has served on the editorial
board of many of the top journals in the field, including the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, and Self and Identity. His research
has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. His major
research interests involve the cognitive representation and activation
of interpersonal information. He has explored the use of priming
methodologies (e.g., guided visualizations, subliminal presentations) to
activate specific kinds of relationship representations, leading to
shifts in self-construal and the experience of others. Most recently he
has drawn on conditioning paradigms to develop computer game software
aimed at modifying social cognitive responding in a positive,
self-accepting direction.
