Perceived learning benefits are higher when GenAI augments students' capabilities and lower when it hurts critical thinking or causes stress¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2 · q1
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q1 i? SHAP rankings from a gradient-boosting classifier indicate greater perceived learning benefits when students perceive GenAI as improving work quality, creativity, organizing ideas, skill confidence, and discovering insights. → Manikonda 2026 q1 i? Perceived learning benefits are lower when students believe GenAI hurts their critical thinking abilities or causes stress. → Manikonda 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Manikonda 2026¶

Manikonda, L.; Si, M.; Munira, S.; Seneviratne, O.; Bennett, K. (2026). The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Student Learning: Examining the Roles of Reliance, Evaluation Literacy, and Course Policy in AI-related Courses. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18676 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2609.18676

q1 · i? · associational · r2

Exploratory ensemble analysis: a GradientBoostingClassifier was trained to predict whether students reported that GenAI improved learning, with SHAP values ranking feature contributions. "students report greater learning benefits when they perceive GenAI as augmenting their existing capabilities."

"SHAP results show that students report greater learning benefits when they perceive GenAI as augmenting their existing capabilities."

Manikonda 2026 (2)¶

Manikonda, L.; Si, M.; Munira, S.; Seneviratne, O.; Bennett, K. (2026). The Uneven Impact of Generative AI on Student Learning: Examining the Roles of Reliance, Evaluation Literacy, and Course Policy in AI-related Courses. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18676. doi:10.48550/arxiv.2609.18676

q1 · i? · associational · r2

Same SHAP feature-ranking analysis of the N=118 survey responses. The article reports "perceived learning benefits are lower when students experience GenAI as interfering with theircognitiveengagement".

"perceived learning benefits are lower when students experience GenAI as interfering with theircognitiveengagement,particularlywhentheybelieveit hurts their critical thinking abilities or causes stress."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Student experiences with GenAI in design thinking fall into four themes: perceived benefits, ethical concerns, hesitance and acceptance, and critical validation — related
• Dependent versus autonomous cognitive offloading to GenAI shows opposite motivational and cognitive outcome patterns — related
• GenAI learning outcomes depend more on use quality (capability, reflective engagement, retained agency) than on frequency of use — related
• Multi-tool GenAI users report higher support, reliance, and benefit than single-tool users, but lower confidence working without GenAI — related
• Perceived instructor policy is associated with GenAI task use, confidence, reliance, and perceived benefits, with small effect sizes — 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