Nataliya Kosmyna, Cassandra Scheirer, and Pattie Maes. 2021. The Thinking Cap: Fostering Growth Mindset Of Children By Means Of Electroencephalography And Perceived Magic of Harry Potter Universe. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI ’21 Extended Abstracts), May 08–13, 2021, Yokohama, Japan. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/34

Abstract

 In this work we introduce the Thinking Cap, a wearable system designed to resemble the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter, fitted with a commercially available Electroencephalography (EEG) headset and a Bluetooth speaker. The Thinking Cap can inform the user about their brain activity in real-time via a speaker. We designed and conducted a study with 48 elementary and middle schoolers to investigate the influence of a BCI device and perceived magic on the development of growth mindset in children. Our results suggest that interacting with the Thinking Cap has a positive impact on children’s mindset, which was expressed through their communicated beliefs and task-based behaviors.