1. A map first
The DOT Model is a map of how people respond when something feels wrong. It has four directions. Fix means get ahead of it and control it. Freeze means stop or fold inward. Fight means push against it. Flight means get away from it, or let it go. Each direction has three distances, from a small version of the feeling, to a clear one, to the whole body. Ruth Diaz, Psy.D. made the model.
The map predicts that a body in a given state looks a certain way. Read the Room tests that prediction.
2. We tried it on AI first
We wrote short scenes from the model's own definitions. Each scene named no feelings. We gave only the scene to AI models and asked which direction the person was heading. The answers were kept apart from the scenes, so the AI never saw what the model predicted.
- In the first clean round, 59 of 72 answers matched the model.
- Fight scenes matched 12 of 12, and the AI got the order from small to large right 27 of 28 times.
- The two-person scenes matched 16 of 16.
- For the Fix scenes (Concern and Worry), 8 of 8 went to "get ahead of it". Under the older fight, flight, freeze and fawn list, the same scenes scattered.
- Three kinds of scene missed: Judgment, Sadness and Guilt. We rewrote those from the model's definitions. Later rounds used the rewrites, so they are not a clean test.
That is a good sign, and it is only AI. The question for this game is whether people see the same thing.
3. Then we built the game
The scenes became a party. Each guest is a 3D figure who walks in carrying something and acts out the moment. Their movement comes from motion capture, from the model's own description of how each state looks in the body, and from the model's face guide. The things they carry are dealt at random, so no object goes with one feeling.
You never see the model's names while you play. Each doorway says only a direction: Take charge, Go still, Push back, Get away. Some guests are calm on purpose, and "Stays put" is always allowed. At the end the party plays out, and when you put the lights up the board becomes the map, with every guest on the square you gave them.
4. How the study works
- 20 scenes plus 2 calm ones, in a random order that is different for each person.
- Four of the scenes were written by a separate AI session that never saw any results. We look at those on their own.
- Only one person is in the room at a time. People who have already played can watch the room from the gallery. They cannot hear you, and you cannot hear them.
- There is no score, no ranking and no right or wrong. At the end the party plays out the room you built, with no right or wrong version. You put the lights up when you are ready and see the map. What others chose opens once you finish.
- For the first round we want 30 people. Thirty people cannot prove anything. It is a pilot, and we will say so when we write it up.
5. What we keep
- Only if you choose "Count my answers": which square you put each guest on, how long you took, and any words you choose to type.
- A random code the game makes in your browser. No name, no email, no account. We do not store your IP address.
- Four optional questions about you (age band, whether you work as a therapist, counsellor or facilitator, how you found the game, whether you have seen the game played). You can skip each one.
- You can delete your answers for 24 hours after you play, using the button at the end.
- Other players only ever see combined results. Combined results may appear in writing about the model.
If you choose "Just play", your answers stay on your own computer. The only thing sent is the random code, so the room knows someone is playing and the results can open for you when you finish.
6. What this is not
It is not therapy and it is not a diagnosis. The people in the game are figures, not real people. The scenes are everyday moments and none of them is violent.
7. Credits
Made by Ruth Diaz, Psy.D., with help from AI tools.
- Bodies and clothes: MakeHuman (CC0).
- Walking and standing: the Carnegie Mellon University Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database.
- The casserole: Kenney Food Kit (CC0).
- Letters in the room: Inter and Cormorant Garamond (SIL Open Font License).
- 3D engine: three.js (MIT licence).