Cognitive shift. Effect of AI on human thinking and reasoning

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Author(s): Bandha Arafat (, arafatbandha163@gmail.com),

Executive Summary:

The rapid integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into daily and professional life has outpaced empirical research on its cognitive consequences. This paper investigates whether reliance on AI for problem-solving and content generation enhances or diminishes human critical thinking and creative output. Employing a longitudinal, mixed-methods design (N=120), participants engaged in a 4-week period of AI-assisted tasks, followed by an unassisted post-test. Quantitative results indicate a significant reduction in cognitive effort—specifically analytical justification and error detection—when AI was available. However, qualitative findings revealed a nuanced effect on creativity: while AI accelerated idea generation (fluency), it reduced cognitive flexibility and original solution novelty when the AI was subsequently removed. We propose a theoretical framework of cognitive offloading to automation, suggesting that AI serves as a powerful but potentially atrophying prosthetic for human reasoning. The paper concludes with recommendations for AI interaction paradigms that preserve, rather than replace, human creative and critical faculties.

Documents:
cognitive_shift_paper.pdf

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