Who Is Doing the Thinking? AI as a Dynamic Cognitive Partner: A Learner-Informed Framework

2026-02-17

AI Summary

This study investigates how secondary school students conceptualize the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in learning, with a particular focus on its positioning within human-AI cognitive interactions. Drawing on qualitative analysis of written reflections from 133 Hong Kong secondary students following an AI literacy course, the research integrates sociocultural theory, distributed cognition, self-regulated learning, and cognitive load theory to propose a learner-centered framework conceptualizing “AI as a dynamic cognitive partner.” This framework comprises nine collaborative dimensions that clearly differentiate between cognitive augmentation and cognitive offloading. It reveals that students can discern, based on contextual learning demands, whether AI functions as a supportive tool that enhances understanding or as a substitute that fosters cognitive dependence. The findings offer both theoretical grounding and practical guidance for the educational integration of AI.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Intelligent Robots: Cognitive Robotics

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Research challenges in human and human-AI computation
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in education, yet there remains a need to explain how students conceptualize AI's role in their thinking and learning. This study proposes a framework positioning AI as a dynamic cognitive partner whose function shifts across learning situations. Using qualitative analysis of written responses from 133 secondary students in Hong Kong following completion of an AI literacy course, we identified nine interrelated dimensions through which learners described AI as partnering with their cognition: conceptual scaffolding for difficult ideas; feedback and error detection; idea stimulation; cognitive organization; adaptive tutoring support; metacognitive monitoring support; task and cognitive load regulation; learning continuity beyond classroom boundaries; and explanation reframing through representational flexibility during moments of being stuck or overwhelmed. Across these dimensions, students distinguished between productive support that extends understanding and unproductive reliance that replaces cognitive effort, indicating situational awareness of when AI should and should not be used. Grounded in sociocultural theory, distributed cognition, self-regulated learning, and cognitive load perspectives, the framework clarifies how AI becomes integrated into learners' cognitive activity while illuminating the boundary between cognitive extension and substitution.

Problem

• AI in education
• cognitive partnership
• student conceptions
• distributed cognition
• cognitive load

Innovation

• dynamic cognitive partner
• learner-informed framework
• distributed cognition
• cognitive extension vs. substitution
• AI literacy