24-task set derived from the Taxonomy of User Needs and Actions (TUNA) with easy and difficult variants

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

The article constructed a set of 24 tasks "derived from the Taxonomy of User Needs and Actions (TUNA), a framework of different ways that people use AI based on different degrees of cognitive effort required." The tasks span TUNA's four categories — information seeking, information processing and synthesis, procedural guidance and execution, and content creation and transformation — with three task types per category and an easy and difficult variant per task (e.g., naming one versus five Olympic medalists). All tasks were completable in under five minutes independently and were used across the three studies with a GPT-4o chat interface.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Tasks are drawn from TUNA's four cognitively distinct categories with easy and difficult variants per task type

Constraints

• All tasks are relatively simple and can be completed in under five minutes independently

Target Learners

• Adult crowdworkers completing simple cognitive tasks

Learning Goals

• Measuring AI-use choices, completion time, and mental effort on simple cognitive tasks

Claims

• Self Estimate Miscalibration Ai Use Simple Tasks [+M]
• Ai No Efficiency Gain Simple Tasks [+M]

Related Designs

Examples

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Key Sources

• Sunny Yu, Myra Cheng, Ahmad Jabbar, Ilia Sucholutsky, Katherine M. Collins, Dan Jurafsky, Robert D. Hawkins. (2026). The efficiency-gain illusion: People underestimate the rate of AI use and overestimate its benefits on simple tasks. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22687

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	tuna-24-task-set-simple-ai-use
title	24-task set derived from the Taxonomy of User Needs and Actions (TUNA) with easy and difficult variants
description	The article constructed a set of 24 tasks "derived from the Taxonomy of User Needs and Actions (TUNA), a framework of different ways that people use AI based on different degrees of cognitive effort required." The tas...
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-10
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — sunny-yu-2026

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