Poker-Physiometrics Study

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health states that stress is becoming the prevalent reason for worker disability. A 1992 UN report and the World Health Organization called job stress "The 20th Century Epidemic" and a "World Wide Epidemic", respectively. Given the mounting social costs of stress, the possibility of automatically identifying and monitoring stress levels for intervention purposes is compelling.

As a baseline study to determine if it is possible to correlate non-invasive physiology with a variety of important contextual measures such as stress, attention, and interest, a pilot study has been initiated to establish the correlation between stress and physiology. This study was started to look at player stress within real live poker game scenarios, namely no-limit Texas Hold'em tournaments. In such tournaments, one can lose their entire bankroll in one hand, termed "going all-in". This has great potential in creating live stressful situations in controlled settings that can be monitored easily, with relatively objective outcomes.

As you play real games of no-limit Texas Holdem in a heads up tournament, we will analyze your speech features, movement, and non-invasive physiology (heart rate, skin conductance, temperature, heat flux) to correlate how these variables are affected when you bluff and/or get stressed during tense moments of a hand.

If you participate in the study, we will be monitoring your physiology and contextual stat using the MIT Wearable Lab's