When Thinking Is Outsourced: Cognitive Offloading and the Heterogeneity of Critical Thinking Among Chinese University Students Using Generative Artificial Intelligence
Shuai Si, Yong Qi, Jingming Xu, Xinyu Qi · 2026
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Description
Shuai Si and colleagues survey in 2026 how Chinese university students hand thinking over to generative AI, and what that habit does to critical thought. A questionnaire reached 353 students across several provinces, and clustering sorted users by how they collaborate with the tools. Four profiles emerged, from simple question-and-answer users, a quarter of the group, to critical co-thinkers at about one sixth.
Learning motivation predicted stronger critical thinking gains and less surrender of mental independence in their models. Deeper offloading, paradoxically, predicted more dependence rather than less. A high-depth, high-dependence subgroup made up about a quarter of respondents, skewed toward women and computing majors. Since everything rested on self-report, the authors read the results as perceptions and urge training in reflection over tool skills.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Shuai Si, Yong Qi, Jingming Xu, Xinyu Qi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 88040 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |