AI Abstention Zone
A deliberately maintained boundary - spatial, temporal, or topical - within which a person excludes AI assistance. The referent is a standing, self-imposed restriction on the scope of AI use rather than a one-off refusal.
Operational Definition
STATE. Coded as present when a participant names at least one explicit, durable exclusion boundary and the conditions under which it applies (e.g. 'no AI during family meals', 'no AI for first-draft poetry', 'no AI in the bedroom'). Each declared boundary is catalogued by type (spatial / temporal / topical) and by stated scope; the state is graded by the count and breadth of maintained boundaries.
Measurement Schema
Proposed measurement protocol (not yet empirically validated): Structured boundary inventory: a semi-structured interview enumerates declared exclusion zones, each verified for durability via a one-week experience-sampling log of adherence (proportion of qualifying occasions on which AI was in fact withheld). Could be reported as number of zones, zone-type distribution, and mean adherence rate; coder agreement on zone-type classification via Cohen's kappa.