Validate effectiveness of AI primer in producing equivalent mental models

Determine whether the AI definition primer used in the two-wave Swiss survey—framing artificial intelligence as software that learns from data to make decisions or predictions—successfully ensured that respondents formed equivalent mental models of AI-based decision-making across all seven application scenarios.

Background

The paper employed an AI primer to align participants’ understanding of artificial intelligence before answering questions about acceptance and human control across seven high-impact decision scenarios. Due to constraints on questionnaire length, the scenarios could not be described in extensive detail. The authors explicitly note that, as a result, they cannot be certain that the primer produced equivalent mental models of AI-based decisions among all respondents.

Establishing whether such priming actually standardizes participants’ mental models is essential for interpreting cross-scenario comparisons and longitudinal shifts in acceptance and control preferences. Validating the primer’s effectiveness would strengthen internal validity and inform future survey designs on public attitudes toward AI.