A new video game doesn't feature high-speed car chases, shooting or police standoffs, but it may improve your emotional health.

MindHabits Inc., a Quebec-based company, has created MindHabits Booster, an online game, focused on identifying the processes behind mental insecurity, said Mark Baldwin, associate professor of psychology at McGill University in Canada.

A free trial of the game -- available at www.mindhabits.com -- is more of a research prototype than an entertaining pastime, said Matthew Mather, CEO of MindHabits.

The player must identify a picture of an "accepting, smiling" face out of a line-up of many more "neutral or frowning" faces, Mather said. The game measures how long it takes the player to identify the positive face during several rounds, he said.

"When you're in a bad mood or feeling negative or stressed out, you take longer to recognize positive signs around you," Mather said.

After the smiling character is selected, his or her face is displayed across the whole screen, Baldwin said, to reinforce representations of acceptance. Creating this connection between oneself and favorable reception increases self-esteem by making the player more likely to think of "warm, accepting relations with others," he said. Identifying a smiling face out of a group of frowning faces helps the player develop the habit of disengaging from negative surroundings, Baldwin said.

"Social threats like rejection, threat, conflict [and] criticism are at the core of emotional insecurity," Baldwin said. "When we're feeling stressed it's often about those kinds of concerns."

A person's emotions can be affected within 100 milliseconds of seeing an image, often happening below the level of awareness, said Michael Wenger, associate professor in the department of psychology at Penn State.

Cognitive skills have the potential to be trained, Wenger said. Although it's unknown what exactly is taken away from virtual environments, he said, experiences learned in such settings can be generalized to real-world situations.

The design of a game -- including using specific sounds and visuals -- can affect how a person is emotionally impacted while playing, said Magy Seif El-Nasr, assistant professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State. Many mainstream video games allow the player to progress while receiving feedback and rewards, which keeps the player satisfied.

"A reward system I think is key in the emotional progression [of the player]," Seif El-Nasr said. "You feel much more fulfilled and satisfied."

Baldwin said the next step for MindHabits is to develop games that are more entertaining while using the same principles as the Booster game.

"The psychological triggers that have beneficial effects, you can build those into any game once you understand the basics behind how these [mental processes] operate," Mather said.