Is ChatGPT making us dumb? MIT study says students are using their brains less
ChatGPT is making students dumb! Or rather, making them use their brains less. A new study by MIT's Media Lab around the impact on human cognition, particularly among students, found that using generative AI tools like ChatGPT for academic work and learning could actually lower people's critical thinking and cognitive engagement over time.During this study researchers observed 54 participants aged 18 to 39 from the Boston area, and divided them into three groups. Each group of students was then asked to write SAT-style essays using either OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google Search, or no digital assistance at all. During this process, researchers monitored brain activity among users through electroencephalography (EEG), scanning 32 different brain regions to evaluate cognitive engagement during the writing.advertisementThe findings were concerning. The group of students using ChatGPT showed the lowest levels of brain activity. According to the study, these students 'consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioural levels.' In fact, the study found that over the course of several essays, many ChatGPT users became increasingly passive, often resorting to just copying and pasting text from the AI chatbot's responses rather than refining or reflecting on the content in line with their own thoughts.
Meanwhile, the students who worked without any digital tools showed the highest brain activity, particularly in regions associated with creativity, memory, and semantic processing. 'The task was executed, and you could say that it was efficient and convenient,' Nataliya Kosmyna, one of the authors of the research paper. 'But as we show in the paper, you basically didn't integrate any of it into your memory networks.'Long term impact suspectedadvertisementResearchers concluded that while AI can help students' quick productivity, it can also impact long-term learning and brain development. Meanwhile, the essay-writing group that used no tools reported higher levels of satisfaction and ownership over their work. In this group, the EEG readings also showed greater neural connectivity in the alpha, theta, and delta frequency bands, areas that are often linked to deep thinking and creative ideation.Interestingly, the group using Google Search showed relatively high levels of brain engagement, suggesting that traditional internet browsing still stimulates active thought processes. The difference further shows how AI users tend to rely entirely on chatbot responses for information instead of thinking critically or using search engines.To further understand and measure retention and comprehension, researchers also asked the students to rewrite one of their essays. And this time the tools were swapped. Students who earlier used ChatGPT were now asked to write without assistance, and the group which used their brain were asked to use AI. The results of this swapping further reinforced the earlier findings. The users who had relied on ChatGPT struggled to recall their original essays and showed weak cognitive re-engagement. Meanwhile, the group that had initially written without the online tools showed increased neural activity when using ChatGPT. This finding further confirms that AI tools can be helpful in learning, but only when used after humans complete the foundational thinking themselves.
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