I’ve made progress in revising and updating the study questionnaire to include the suggested outcomes, as well as refining the experimental protocol and script. However, I feel mentally exhausted from grappling with the narrative, the arguments, and the subtle connections between the constructs. While progress has been made, I’m still working on piecing the literature and theories together into a cohesive storyline.

While working on the experimental script, I realized that the manipulation might be too obvious, particularly the attempt to prompt unexpected negative feedback to evoke a negative emotional response from the candidates. We’re interested in observing how candidates react to and perceive negative feedback from interviewers. For example, we’re curious whether candidates might perceive AI feedback more objectively and therefore be more likely to accept it, or if they might dismiss negative feedback from AI as a “glitch.”

Since we’re shifting our experimental design from a between-subjects to a within-subjects design, each participant would experience the negative feedback twice. This repetition might make the feedback seem less truthful, leading candidates to question its validity and not respond to the manipulation as intended. My advisor suggested considering a mixed experimental design, where part of the study is conducted within-subjects, and the section involving negative feedback is handled in a between-subjects design.

Organization system: I am realizing that organizing literature effectively is crucial in social science research, especially in studies involving human subjects. It’s important to establish a solid organizational system before carrying out a study, so I’ve been experimenting with and researching the most effective ways to organize literature and notes.

I consider myself an organized person, but I am naturally a disorganized thinker. I strive to keep my thoughts and surroundings orderly, yet my mind can be chaotic, distracted, and prone to wandering. I often struggle to keep track of literature and my thoughts about these papers because my ideas tend to slip away before I have a chance to write them down.

My current system, though imperfect and likely to evolve, involves using Zotero to store all of my papers. I’m not sure why I’m only now discovering the Zotero Chrome plugin, but it has been a game-changer. I’ve developed a color-coding system as I read through each paper: pink highlights key takeaways from the paper, yellow highlights points directly relevant to my experiment, and sticky notes capture specific thoughts or notations for later reference. I also jot down personal reflections, potential patterns, or questions that arise in my notebook.

I suspect there might be a better system out there, so I will continue to experiment with what works best for me. If you’re reading this and have any recommendations or suggestions, I’d love to hear them! 🙂