Students’ actual genAI use correlates with interest and perceived usefulness of genAI but not with knowledge or critical-thinking dispositions¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i3 Actual genAI use correlated significantly with interest in genAI (r = 0.54) and perceived usefulness (r = 0.58), but not with knowledge, epistemic orientation, intellectual values, or NFC. → Markus H. Hefter 2026

Evidence¶

Markus H. Hefter 2026¶

Markus H. Hefter, Benjamin Paaßen, Kirsten Berthold. (2026). GenAI Knowledge, Epistemic Orientation, and Intellectual Values Predict Undergraduate Students’ Critical GenAI Use. AI Educ. 2026, 2, 27. https://doi.org/10.3390/aieduc2030027

q2 · i3 · associational · r2

Exploratory correlation analysis of the 19-item usage/use-value measure (α = 0.83 and 0.75) in the correlational study (N = 67). Actual use correlated with “their interest in genAI, r = 0.54” and perceived usefulness, r = 0.58, with no detected correlations with knowledge or dispositions.

"we found that students’ actual use of genAI correlated significantly only with their interest in genAI, r = 0.54, p < 0.001, and their perceived usefulness of genAI, r = 0.58, p < 0.001. However, we could not detect correlations with other factors such as students’ knowledge about genAI, their disposition to engage in critical thinking"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Motivation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Interest — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Learners invest more effort in tasks they perceive as interesting, personally important, or useful to their future goals. — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Need for cognition correlates positively with critical genAI use and negatively with perceived usefulness of genAI — related
• Epistemic orientation and intellectual values jointly predict students’ critical use of genAI, accounting for about one-third of its variance — related
• GenAI use is positively associated with self-reported critical-thinking disposition among business students only in the adjusted structural model, with a near-zero zero-order correlation — related
• Students’ knowledge about genAI, measured both by self-report and performance test, positively predicts their critical use of genAI — related
• GenAI's effects on higher-order thinking are mixed: support for reflection and idea expansion alongside cognitive offloading and no overall innovativeness gain — related
• Self-reported critical-thinking disposition is positively associated with self-perceived employability among business students — related