We are a research and development lab that aims to establish the scientific foundations for effective mental health games. We empirically validate our games with rigorous research designs, we share our data publicly, and publish our results regardless of outcomes. We are also committed to developing a theoretical framework and new methodologies that stipulate how to use games to experimentally test theories of psychological change.
Our international partners include developmental psychologists, neuroscientists, veteran game developers, and artists whose objective is to harness the power of play to transform children's emotional lives. We co-design game experiences based on empirically validated principles, together with clinicians, parents and children themselves.
Welcome to the Games for Emotional and Mental Health (GEMH) Lab! We are committed to meeting young people in the digital playgrounds they have chosen to inhabit and providing choices that delight and empower youth while also training emotional resilience skills.
The Wall Street Journal highlights Biofeedback Therapy with DEEP VR and the GEMH Lab at Radboud University
read the full story here
Every once in a while I get a text, and it has no emoji in it. And even though the text is fine, and the contents are pretty neutral, the fact that there are no emoji puts my mind in an instantaneous state of doubt — is this person mad at me?
Our new open access viewpoint paper "An Integrative Model for the Effectiveness of Biofeedback Interventions for Anxiety Regulation" is online! With this paper we aimed to encourage a new phase of biofeedback research and implementation
During the online edition of the Waterkant Festival, Joanneke Weerdmeester (GEMH-lab) & Owen Harris (Explore DEEP) gave a joint talk on using interactive technology such as games and VR to improve our well-being. Check it out!
Last week, our very own Isabel was part of a panel that discussed a new APA journal: Technology, Mind, and Behavior (TMB). Together with Nick Bowman, Shawn Green and Danielle McNamara, Isabel discussed why this new journal was a much needed addition to the media psychology landscape.
GEMH lab's Nastasia Griffioen wrote a blog on person-centric Artificial Intelligence (AI). What does this term actually mean and how do we strive to make sure that what we build is not just convenient and efficient, but also in line with our understanding of human psychology?
Yay! I'm happy to announce that our latest has been officially published in the new APA journal Technology, Mind and Behavior!
On June 8th our research with DEEP was featured in a great article in the Wallstreet Journal which discussed the promise of combining wearable biosensors with virtual reality and game design to create a new wave of more engaging and potentially more affordable and accessible forms of biofeedback training. In this blog we shortly outline our research with DEEP as well as other biofeedback video games.
Akili Interactive’s game EndeavorRx is the first game approved by the FDA to be prescribed as treatment for children with ADHD in the US. What does this mean for other games developed to improve emotional and mental health and change behavior?
A new paper by Aniek Wols, Marlou Poppelaars, Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff and Isabela Granic is out, published in Entertainment Computing!
We have written blogs about games to play online with family and friends or games that can help you relax. Both of which seem very needed in the uncertain times we live in now, most of us quarantined. However, we realized that not all families have access to these games. We wanted to do something for them. We have donated our Playstations that we have used for studies in the past to families who live in poverty. You can read more about that and the organisations that we donated them to in this blogpost.
Digital media are designed to serve many different functions: socialising, working, building relationships, as well as playing and being entertained. In this project, we seek to understand the impact of different features of digital media, and help youth align what they value and love with what they do on digital platforms, in order to increase wellbeing and coherent identity development.
Fast and accurate decision making in threatening situations is vital for police officers on duty. However, under threat, people tend to react impulsively and lack cognitive control. This is why police officers need to train control over their responses to threat as much as possible. To enable this, we develop a virtual training environment with real-time biofeedback. We combine virtual reality and biofeedback to create a personalized, realistic training experience, while honing state-of-the-art technology and psychophysical theory.
People with large social networks on average live longer, happier, less stressed lives. We can potentially leverage video games and virtual spaces to increase the experience of social support and impact daily stress and anxiety. Therefore, this project aims to show that virtual social support can lower stress, and potentially impact stress coping behaviours.
