My research progress has not followed exactly the direction I imagined at the beginning of the semester. I started with a broad interest in machines, magic, and ritual, but translating those ideas into a specific psychological question has been more challenging than I expected. I think the project will continue to change as I refine the research question and experimental design. One milestone I feel good about is developing a magic demo that uses webcam-based eye-tracking to predict a participant’s choice. This gives me a concrete interaction to build on. I have also developed an initial experimental idea for studying trust in human-computer interaction, although I am still working out what kind of trust I want to measure.
I would say my project vision is about 70% of the way toward what I hoped to establish by this point. The technical development has gone reasonably well, but the visual design remains open and will likely change as I clarify the interface and the participant’s experience. I do not yet feel that I have a finished production milestone I am especially proud of. The demo is encouraging, but I am still struggling with how the proposed trust-based gambling task connects to the magic interaction and the larger research question.
For the accompanying paper, I want to explain how theories of media ritual and machine authority inform my design choices, then examine whether the experience works in the ways those theories led me to expect. The creative format offers a way for participants to reflect on human-computer relationships through their own experience. The paper can connect that experience to the literature and analyze participant responses, including findings that challenge my initial assumptions.
In the second half of the semester, I am most looking forward to establishing a focused research question and a workable experiment. I want to make the connection between the creative experience and the trust task clearer, so that each part serves a purpose. I also hope to finish a testable version early enough to pilot it, make revisions, collect data, and leave enough time for analysis.