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. Keywords: mind-wandering, incubation effect, creativity, problem-solving, game mechanics, video game, creativity support tools, serious games

Paper: MuseFlow: Facilitating Mind-Wandering Through Video Games
Poster: Mind-Wandering and Video Games

Play the game and get Eureka! moments: MuseFlow online game

MuseFlow was developed using the JavaScript library p5.js integrated with HTML and CSS. The back-end were implemented using PHP and SQL. We invite interested researchers to contribute to this project.

Player is obstructed by a platform

Model to Promote Mind-Wandering using Undemanding Game Mechanics