Playing with and without Biofeedback Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2017 IEEE. Casual mobile games enhanced with biofeedback provide a more engaging alternative to traditional stress self-regulation therapies. Previous studies have shown to help players acquire breathing control skills that carry-over into a subsequent cognitively stressful task. We replicated these results with higher power (42 users), and with a more challenging game. We used a Pac-Man style game enhanced with Respiratory Biofeedback, Pac-Man Zen, to compare 1) breathing control during play, 2) the carry-over of said control into a subsequent stressful task and 3) cognitive improvement in a subsequent stressful task against a non-biofeedback version of the game. Results showed that one-time training with the biofeedback version of the game was not only more effective, but also led to improved performance in a later stressful task, both in terms of lowered breathing and improved test scores, compared to the non-biofeedback version. The result is important because it suggests that stimulating, casual biofeedback games can be effective at teaching breathing control, and thus arousal regulation, in a stressful setting.

name of conference

  • 2017 IEEE 5th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH)

published proceedings

  • 2017 IEEE 5th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH)

author list (cited authors)

  • Zafar, M. A., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R.

citation count

  • 10

complete list of authors

  • Zafar, M Abdullah||Ahmed, Beena||Gutierrez-Osuna, Ricardo

editor list (cited editors)

  • Dias, N., Freitas, S. D., Duque, D., Rodrigues, N. F., Wong, K., & Vilaça, J. L.

publication date

  • January 2017