Prior genAI access and incentives interact on perceived difficulty of the memory test¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r3 · q3 · i1 small
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i1 On perceived difficulty of the Stage 3 memory test, there was a significant genAI × incentives interaction. → Dawid Ratajczyk 2026

Evidence¶

Dawid Ratajczyk 2026¶

Dawid Ratajczyk, Agata Dymarska, Adam Matłoka, Michał Tomczyk, Małgorzata Wiącek. (2026). Thinking With AI, Reasoning Without It: Cognitive Offloading to Generative AI Weakens Effort Regulation. Preprint. https://osf.io/59qtm/ doi:10.31234/osf.io/83jum_v1

q3 · i1 · causal · r3

Two-way robust ANOVA on perceived difficulty of the Stage 3 memory test in the lab experiment. The quoted interaction, η²p = .032, was significant although neither main effect was; the article's post hoc description is truncated in the supplied text.

"However,therewasa significantgenAI×incentivesinteraction,𝐹(1,153) = 5.04, 𝑝=.0262,𝜂 2 𝑝 =.032."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Self-reported mental effort increased less across tasks in the ChatGPT condition while perceived difficulty rose equally in both groups — related
• GenAI access reduces perceived difficulty of the assisted reasoning task — related
• Higher GenAI usage clusters report greater perceived difficulty, lower self-assessed understanding, and different trust in AI-generated code — related
• Prior genAI use and incentives show no clear effects on later memory retention — related
• GenAI use weakens effort adjustment to incentives on subsequent unaided reasoning — related