MAGI Lab Students win Psi Chi Regional Research Award

Jazzmyn Guzman and Ida Mathiassen have been awarded a Regional Research Award from the Psi Chi Honor Society for work they have been carrying out in the MAGI Lab! Jazzmyn and Ida have been contributing to a new project, inspired by an observation by Midwest Mystic, Joe Diamond. You might remember Joe from his contribution to our qualitative study of the aesthetic experience of magic or from our two-man show, Mesmerized!

In this new research, entitled, “Magic vs. the Machine: Cognitive Limitations of Human and Artificial Minds,” we have observed that AI systems can be deceived by magic tricks, but that their behavior doesn’t always perfectly mirror that of human participants. This work will be presented at the 2026 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago.

The Midwestern Psychological Association received more than 900 submissions to their Psi Chi program and only a few were among the top-rated abstracts that received this award based on the “high-quality of the research project.” Jazzmyn and Ida will receive a monetary prize and will be recognized for their achievement at the conference in April.

If you’ll be at MPA, please drop by their poster to give them a hard time! (Maybe also congratulate them while you’re there.)