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MuseFlow: Facilitating Mind-Wandering Through Video Games

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Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021 (INTERACT 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12934))

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Abstract

Mind-wandering, i.e., letting the mind drift away from the task at hand, is mostly seen as a state of mind to avoid, as it may negatively impact the current task. However, evidence in cognitive science shows that mind-wandering can also positively affect creativity and problem-solving. Still, there is a lack of technological solutions to facilitate and utilize mind-wandering in such a specific way. In this short paper, we present MuseFlow, a video game designed to facilitate mind-wandering deliberately. Our study shows that MuseFlow induces mind-wandering significantly more often compared to a demanding game condition while maintaining the players’ motivation to play and succeed in the game.

This research is funded by Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany (MWIDE NRW).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    MuseFlow repository: https://github.com/JuanOlaya/MuseFlow.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human-Computer Interaction Group, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences, Neidenburger Str. 43, 45897, Gelsenkirchen, Germany

    Juan F. Olaya-Figueroa, Younes Lakhnati & Jens Gerken

Authors
  1. Juan F. Olaya-Figueroa
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  2. Younes Lakhnati
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  3. Jens Gerken
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Juan F. Olaya-Figueroa , Younes Lakhnati or Jens Gerken .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy

    Carmelo Ardito

  2. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Rosa Lanzilotti

  3. Computer Science Department, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alessio Malizia

  4. Department of Computer Science, University of York, York, UK

    Helen Petrie

  5. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Antonio Piccinno

  6. Computer Science Department, University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Giuseppe Desolda

  7. Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, USA

    Kori Inkpen

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Olaya-Figueroa, J.F., Lakhnati, Y., Gerken, J. (2021). MuseFlow: Facilitating Mind-Wandering Through Video Games. In: Ardito, C., et al. Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021. INTERACT 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12934. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85613-7_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85613-7_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-85612-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-85613-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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