In one preregistered experiment, metacognitive feedback on learners' own LLM use lowered the odds of answer offloading and raised the odds of a correct unaided answer on one-sided tests, with 95% intervals reaching no effect¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r3 · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-15 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Participants who received metacognitive feedback had lower odds of answer offloading than those who did not (OR = 0.47). → Sebastian Maier 2026 q3 i? Participants who received metacognitive feedback had higher odds of answering a subsequent unaided test item correctly (OR = 1.51). → Sebastian Maier 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Sebastian Maier 2026¶

Sebastian Maier, Kai Schwabe, Manuel Schneider, and Stefan Feuerriegel. (2026). Designing Against Deskilling: Metacognitive Feedback Reduces Cognitive Offloading to LLM Assistants. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20143 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2609.20143

q3 · i? · causal · r3

Confirmatory item-level mixed-effects logistic regression (H2a) in the preregistered online experiment, testing the metacognitive feedback main effect on offloading across nine learning items. The article reports "lower odds of answer offloading" with OR = 0.47, 95% CI [0.22, 1.00], p = .026, one-sided.

"participants who received metacognitive feedback had lower odds of answer offloading than those who did not (𝑏=− 0.75,𝑆𝐸= 0.39,𝑂𝑅= 0.47, 95% CI[0.22, 1.00],𝑧=− 1.95,𝑝=. 026)"

Sebastian Maier 2026 (2)¶

Sebastian Maier, Kai Schwabe, Manuel Schneider, and Stefan Feuerriegel. (2026). Designing Against Deskilling: Metacognitive Feedback Reduces Cognitive Offloading to LLM Assistants. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20143

q3 · i? · causal · r3

Confirmatory test of H2b on the six-item unaided final test in the same preregistered experiment. The article reports "higher odds of answering a subsequent unaided test item correctly" with OR = 1.51, 95% CI [0.98, 2.33], p = .030; the CI includes 1.0.

"they had higher odds of answering a subsequent unaided test item correctly (𝑏= 0.42,𝑆𝐸= 0.22,𝑂𝑅= 1.51, 95% CI[0.98, 2.33],𝑧= 1.88,𝑝=. 030)"

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Self-Regulation — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Feedback interventions show phase-specific effects: advice feedback reduces reminder bias, but ranking feedback alters beliefs without increasing offloading — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• How genAI is used, not who uses it, predicts whether independent performance declines or improves — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Evidence suggests over-reliance on generative AI may negatively affect students' self-regulated learning behaviors, potentially harming retention and transfer to novel contexts — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it

• Greater answer offloading during learning is associated with lower subsequent unaided performance (exploratory) — related
• Access to an LLM assistant during practice did not significantly lower subsequent unaided test performance — related
• Metacognitive feedback disrupted the tendency to repeat answer offloading across consecutive items without changing whether participants engaged with the assistant — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Offloading work to AI costs learning: students given answers did well in practice but scored lower on an unassisted exam — related
• The effort-based reward reduced how often participants used the assistant, whereas metacognitive feedback changed how they used it — related
• An effort-based reward did not significantly reduce answer offloading or improve unaided performance — related
• Prior genAI access shows only exploratory evidence of poorer subsequent unaided reasoning, within the no-incentive condition, and no preregistered main effect — related
• Offloading information to external stores is associated with lower memory performance, moderated by awareness of a later test — related