URL for project website/blog
What research questions the project addresses, aims & themes
The xDelia (Xcellence in Decision-making through Enhanced Learning in Immersive Applications) project is developing and exploring the use of serious games linked to physiological sensors to detect and address the impact of people's behaviours, habits and emotional states when they make financial decisions. It is a three year pan-European project that combines the interdisciplinary expertise of six partner institutions based across Europe.
How the research questions are addressed by the project (methodology and activity/environment)
The aim is to develop learning interventions based around serious games linked to physiological sensors, which will improve financial decision making of private traders, by enabling them to regulate their emotions so they make better trading decisions. Private traders are people who use a trading platform (in this case, the trading platform of one of our partner institutions, Saxo Bank) to trade on the markets using their own money.
Our experimental laboratory studies showed significant relationship between emotion regulation strategy and financial behaviour and outcomes. We built on these findings, taking our experiments to the trading floor, wiring up professional traders with unobtrusive tiny heart rate variability (HRV) sensors during their working day and overnight, recording up to 24 hours of data which we could download and analyse. The studies showed that emotion regulation capability (measured by high frequency HRV and change in heart rate at news events) rises with experience. This is an especially strong finding given the known decline in high frequency heart rate variability with age. In fact, the results showed a decline in resting HRV with trader experience, consistent with this age decline effect. This coincided with findings from our interviews with traders and investors that managing emotional reactions to market events and trading outcomes is important if they are to avoid bias, and that this is a skill developed over time. We are incorporating HRV sensors into serious games to act as learning elements along a learning pathway targeted at private investors who trade using the Saxo Bank trading platform (in Copenhagen). Unlike many sensor-based gaming approaches which use sensor feedback as input to the game, the xDelia games provide real-time visualization of physiological data to the player to help them learn how to regulate their emotional responses. The learning interventions involve games and activities that act as diagnostics and as learning elements, visualizing the emotion regulation strategy as it is revealed during game play and showing the player what impact this is having on their financial decisions. Games form part of the learning journey, teaching techniques for emotion regulation (such as mindfulness) and providing a safe environment in which the investor can try out new emotion regulation techniques using games that incorporate financially realistic tasks, but in which they will not lose money, such as The Aiming Game, The Two-Index Game and The Auction Game.
Findings and outputs
As a result of the Saxo Bank studies which used the Two Index Game it was discovered that the diagnosis and feedback approach was a valid diagnostic tool and learning environment. The final project report will include the full details of all the findings and outputs.
Project impact
The project is currently writing up the final report which will include project impact.
Publications
The full list of publications is at http://www.xdelia.org/publications/
Keywords
Emotions, financial decisions, serious games
People involved
Professor Eileen Scanlon
Professor Mark Fenton O'Creevy
Professor Grainne Conole
Dr Gill Clough
Dr Mark Gaved
Dr Gareth Davies
Project partners and links
Blekinge Tekniska Högskola
CIMNE
Erasmus UniversityRotterdam
Forschungszentrum Informatik
The Open University
Saxo Bank
University of Bristol
Funder(s)
European Commission
Start Date and duration
1 March 2009 - 28 February 2012