In the last few years, the arrival of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots has made it possible for an entire paper to be generated in a couple of seconds with a single prompt. With it, heated debates have arisen regarding AI’s numerous ethical concerns surrounding the environment, job markets, user privacy, and more, including its cognitive effects on those who overuse it.
Cognitive offloading is defined by the National Library of Medicine as the “act of reducing the mental processing requirements of a task through physical actions.” Every time you write an item down on a shopping list or add an event reminder to the calendar, you are offloading information.
This applies to AI usage as well. ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, and other chatbots have made it possible to provide their users with comprehensive solutions to their prompts in a matter of seconds, no matter how simple or complicated.
Because of this, AI has become a mainstream study method for most students. Skyline junior Noa G. consults AI before writing an essay to organize her thoughts. “If I have my pieces of evidence that I researched and found, I’ll be like, ‘Hey AI, can you give me some ideas on how to break this into BTSs,’ and it’ll give me ideas on how to format my essay,” she explains.
This phenomenon comes with many benefits and risks. While it assists in freeing up mental headspace for more complex tasks, it can also result in cognitive atrophy, impairing the ability to retain information and perform basic cognitive tasks over time.
Cognitive atrophy occurs when there is a lack of brain functions being performed, leading to the loss of brain cells and connection pathways.
Multiple research studies in recent years have shown a common trend: As users increasingly delegate menial tasks to AI, their critical thinking skills are used less and less, leading to cognitive atrophy.
Skyline history and civics teacher Ms. Lloyd describes two ways students use AI in their academic studies, only one of which is effective for learning. “The right way to use [AI] is to ask for quick clarifying pieces or to Google a date or get, briefly, what happened in a situation and to clarify understanding,” she says.
The other, more problematic method is the strategy that is used more frequently amongst students. “This is when students use it to dodge work or to avoid actually having to do the effort themselves, which has a long-term impact on their ability to critically think because they’re letting the computer think for them,” warns Ms. Lloyd.
For more information:
AI’s cognitive implications: the decline of our thinking skills?
