Alliance for Catholic Education
When students use tools like ChatGPT to write essays, what’s really happening in their brains—and what’s being left behind? This session unpacks new research on cognitive debt: the long-term mental cost of offloading thinking to AI.
We’ll explore recent a multi-method study that compared students writing essays with only their brain, with a search engine, or with an AI assistant. The students who relied on AI assistants showed reduced brain activity, weaker memory of their own writing, and lower feelings of ownership—effects that lingered even after they stopped using the tool.
We’ll explore what this means for learning, examine the science behind the findings, and consider practical implications for both classroom instruction and school leadership.
Whether you’re experimenting with AI in your instruction or helping set schoolwide policy, you’ll walk away with clear takeaways, deeper questions, and concrete ways to support student thinking in the age of AI.
Learn more about the HPL Network and join for free at hplnetwork.org
