💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Emotion Memory Technology Well-being

📝 Survey Design and Analysis  Thematic Analysis

🌀 Empathize Define

⏯️ Ongoing

Overview: This study explores how people process their negative memories using technology (capture, express, share, reflect on), aiming to identify needs and design opportunities.

Research Goals: 

• How do people process their unpleasant memories?

• How do different cognitive styles (rumination vs. reflection) impact the way people engage with technology to process their memories?

My Role: Lead researcher

Key Findings: 

• Different people (reflectors and ruminators) have different attitudes towards technology, and their needs differ.

• They engage with memory technologies differently—reflectors do not trust the effect of technology, and they have a separate processing phase, while ruminators prefer expressive outlets  and they need to communicate with others, in addition to trusting the influence of technology

•  Participants displayed individual and social acceptance plays a role in the processing of unpleasant memories.

Design Recommendations / Impact:

• Display the need for personalized reflection tools 

• Display potential for various steps in processing

Deliverables:

A research report with key findings, submitted to a conference.

💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Memory Technology Senses/Modalities Well-being

📝 Survey Design and Analysis  Interview

🌀 Empathize Define

✅ Completed

Overview:   This study explores which modalities (senses) people need to express their memories and how remembering with different modalities (mediums for our senses) influence our personal memories and feelings. I also investigate the role of individual differences.

Research Goals: To understand how sensory modalities shape memory recall and expression and to provide design insights for future memory technologies.

My Role: Lead researcher

Key Findings: 

• Participants recalled memories through multi-modalities, highlighting the influence of tangible interactions.

• Expression preferences varied, with some preferring verbal storytelling while others relied on images or physical objects.

• Emotion of the memory changes its needs, negative memories are not expressed with modalities.

Design Recommendations / Impact:

• Develop memory technologies that incorporate multiple modalities for richer recall.

• Design tools that allow users to express memories through images, sound, and tactile interactions.

• Personalize memory recall systems based on users’ sensory preferences.

Deliverables:

• A research framework outlining multimodal memory recall and expression.

• User insights to inform future development of memory-supporting technologies.

• Award: 3rd Place Winner- Student Research Competition (CHI'24)

Otenen, E. (2024, May). Towards Designing for Multimodal Remembering: Findings from an Interview Study. In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6).

💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Human-AI  Technology  Theory of Mind (ToM) 

📝 Observational Research Interview Talk Aloud

🌀 Empathize Define

✅ Completed

Overview: I am working on how human and LLM interaction is influenced by their theory of mind towards each other. My insights are presented in this paper, I presented at ToM-AI Workshop at CHI'24.

Deliverables:

Otenen, E. (2024, May). Developing Theory of Mind in Human and AI Interactions: A Perspective From Memory Technologies. In Proceedings of Workshop on Theory of Mind in Human-AI Interaction at CHI 2024 (ToMinHAI at CHI 2024). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. 

💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Human-AI Memory Narrative Social Media Technology 

📝 Systematic Review

🌀 Empathize Define

⏯️ Ongoing

Overview: This paper explores how different technologies are designed for aiding human memory, and how technology found to be impacting human memory abilities.  

Research Goals: How do computing technologies influence autobiographical memory?

My Role: Lead researcher

Key Findings: 

Design Recommendations / Impact:

Deliverables:

💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Human-AI Memory Technology 

📝 Systematic Review

🌀 Empathize Define

✅ Completed/Submitted

Overview: This paper explores the scope of existing memory technologies in the HCI field.

Research Goals: What is the focus of existing memory technologies?

My Role: Lead researcher

Key Findings: 

Design Recommendations / Impact:

Deliverables:

💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Human-AI Memory Technology 

📝 Usability Testing Wizard of Oz Prototyping

🌀 Prototype Test

✅ Completed/Submitted

Overview: This is a bigger project (consisting of prototyping, designing, and testing). Conducted usability testing to assess the accessibility and cultural fit of a multimodal AI-powered health app designed for medical information-seeking among diverse users. Findings were published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth.

Research Goals: 

• How usable/accessible/culturally relevant/easily adoptable is this multimodal AI-powered health app for elderly and African American participants? 

• What barriers exist in AI-driven health information-seeking? 

My Role: Collaborator

Key Findings: 

• Elderly participants faced challenges with voice interaction due to unclear prompts and complex phrasing.

• Users preferred a mix of voice and text input for better accessibility.

• African American participants highlighted concerns about AI bias and trust in medical recommendations.

Design Recommendations / Impact:

• Simplify voice interactions with clear, step-by-step guidance.

• Implement transparency features (e.g., source citations) to build trust.

• Develop culturally responsive AI assistants by integrating diverse datasets and inclusive language.

Deliverables:

Bosco, C., Otenen, E., Torres, J. O., Nguyen, V., Chheda, D., Peng, X., ... & Shih, P. C. (2025). Designing a Multimodal and Culturally Relevant Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementia Generative Artificial Intelligence Tool for Black American Informal Caregivers: Cognitive Walk-Through Usability Study. JMIR aging, 8(1), e60566.

💻 Human - Computer Interaction    

⭐ Narrative Social Media

📝 Web Scraping Observational Research Workshop Wizard of Oz

🌀 Define

✅ Completed/Submitted

Overview:  This study examines how individuals use the subreddit r/abortion to seek information on self-managed abortion post-Dobbs, focusing on procedural, legal, and experiential aspects. It's follow-up study also includes designing a workshop and talking with women about their experiences on interacting with prototype website for abortion-information seeking.

Research Goals: 

• To analyze the types of information sought regarding self-managed abortion and identify patterns in discussion, emotional tone, and linguistic features to identity needs of individuals.

• Iterating design prototypes for abortion information website and testing its usability with workshops.

My Role: Collaborator responsible for data scraping, quantitative analysis, and writing.

Key Findings: 

• Users seek information on procedure and post-abortion care , legal and logistical concerns, and share personal experiences.

• The subreddit acts as both an informational resource and an emotional support space.

• People prefer seriousness in design, and fast access to information.

Design Recommendations / Impact:

• Develop more accessible, reliable online resources on self-managed abortion.

• Create digital tools for structured information-sharing and emotional support.

• Improve moderation and content accuracy in online abortion discussions.

Deliverables:

Two research papers are submitted to a journal and currently under review.

🧠 Cognitive Science

⭐ Cognition 

📝 Data Visualization Natural Language Processing (NLP) Modeling Web Scraping

🌀Empathize

✅ Completed

Overview:  The human mind generates a continuous stream of spontaneous thoughts (STs), yet little is known about their structural flow. This study investigates whether STs follow structured cognitive patterns or transition randomly.

Deliverables: 

Presentation at Princeton University.

Presentation at SPSP (Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference).

🧠 Cognitive Science

⭐ Cognition Emotion Human-AI Narrative

📝 Data Visualization Natural Language Processing (NLP) Survey Design and Analysis

🌀Empathize

✅ Completed

Overview:  Humans retell stories all the time. But how about ChatGPT? Can we rely on their skills, or gain insights toward human cognition? This project, published in Nature Scientific Reports on ChatGPT and human retellings revealed linguistic differences but an emotional stability in retellings told by humans vs. ChatGPT. 

Deliverables: 

Breithaupt, F., Otenen, E., Wright, D. R., Kruschke, J. K., Li, Y., & Tan, Y. (2024). Humans create more novelty than ChatGPT when asked to retell a story. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 875.

🧠 Cognitive Science

⭐ Emotion Human-AI Narrative Social Media Well-being

📝 Data Visualization Natural Language Processing (NLP) Survey Design and Analysis Web Scraping

🌀Empathize

✅ Completed

Overview:  We are comparing the language of lonely vs. control group in Twitter with NLP and computational techniques. Turns out we can understand if people are lonely by looking at their tweets!

Deliverables: 

Otenen, E., Seckin, O. C., Valdez, D., & Bollen, J. (2023). Quantifying the digital phenotype of loneliness on twitter. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 45, No. 45).

🧠 Cognitive Science

⭐ Cognition Emotion Human-AI Narrative

📝 Data Visualization Natural Language Processing (NLP) Survey Design and Analysis

🌀Empathize

⏯️ Ongoing

Overview: We are examining meaningful life episodes of individuals and the role of feedback received in social media --> no spoiler about the hypotheses yet!

PS. one of my meaningful life episodes on the right.

🧠 Cognitive Science

⭐ Memory Theory of Mind (ToM) 

📝 Data Visualization Survey Design and Analysis

🌀Empathize

⏯️ Ongoing

Overview: We aim to understand the relation between theory of mind and autobiographical memory skills. In simple worlds, we question how our understanding of what others think affects our personal memories.