Caveat emptier: This post was drafted with help from an AI assistant (Perplexity)— but ideated and edited extensively by the human, Bill Acton. The links in the text connect to research or sources that support the specific claim being made, most of which were initially surveyed by Perplexity and then confirmed by me.
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| Clker.com |
A Quantitative and qualitative checkup of AI use and its potential impact . . .
You probably can’t run a brain scan, but you can watch for specific patterns in your behavior, work, and feelings that research is starting to link to AI‑related declines in critical thinking.
1. Know the risk pattern: cognitive offloading
Studies are converging on the idea that the main risk is not “using AI” but over-offloading thinking to it. Frequent heavy AI users in several studies showed lower scores on critical thinking tests, with “cognitive offloading” letting the tool do the reasoning work, acting as the mediator. Warning signs:
- You routinely ask AI for explanations, arguments, or outlines before trying to reason them out yourself.
- You notice you are skipping the cognitive struggle phase in hard tasks (wrestling with ideas, drafting, revising) and jumping straight to polished answers.
- You increasingly feel that without AI you’d be “stuck” on tasks you once did alone.
If those describe some or most of your serious thinking work, your critical engagement may be eroding rather than being extended or enhanced.
2. Behavioral checks: How you work without AI
A practical way to test whether AI is degrading your critical thinking is to temporarily remove it from small parts of your workflow and observe the difference. Try experiments like:
- No‑AI sprints: Pick one task you often use AI for (e.g., outlining a post, analyzing an article, planning training) and do 20–30 minutes completely without AI, then note:
- How hard is it to get started?
- Do you stall, or can you still generate lines of reasoning and questions?
- Independent re-creation: Let AI generate an answer to a question you care about, set it aside, and a day later write your own answer from scratch, then compare for depth and structure.
- Paper test: For logic puzzles, argument analysis, or reading a dense text, work only with pen and paper and see whether your stamina or patience has changed over time.
If you consistently find yourself unable to start, sustain, or organize thinking without the tool, that’s strong evidence that your independent skills are atrophying.
3. Product checks: How your work is changing
AI‑related critical thinking decline often shows up in the *character* of your work.
Look for trends like:
- Arguments or essays feel more polished but less yours—generic phrasing, fewer original turns of thought, less surprise.
- You’re doing less fact‑checking, corroboration, or seeking counter‑arguments, and more copy, light edit, and send.
- Your questions to AI are shallow (“write this for me”) rather than probing (“here’s my reasoning—what am I missing?”)
You can test this directly by taking a few older pieces you wrote pre‑AI and comparing them to current pieces: are there fewer explicit reasons, counterpoints, and revisions visible in your newer work?
4. Internal checks: How you feel while and after using AI
Several researchers and commentators note that over‑reliance on AI can correlate with mental “flattening”: less effort, less reflection, and more anxiety. Ask yourself:
- After a long AI session, do I feel mentally "exercised" or somewhat numb and passive?
- Do I at times trust AI’s answer more than my own instincts, even on things I know well?
- Do I feel uneasy tackling complex problems, especially those I am not as intimately familiar with, without checking with AI first?
A growing sense that you can’t think effectively without the tool, is a soft but important indicator of diminished critical confidence.
5. Use of a Self‑Assessment Rubric (like the one I have created below!)
( It is possible to adapt existing AI literacy and critical thinking rubrics, although none generally available focus on the impact of AI use/dependence, per se.)
For example, rate yourself (1 = often, 3 = sometimes, 5 = rarely) on each statement:
- “I accept AI outputs without checking sources, logic, or alternatives.”
- “I start with AI’s answer before I try thinking the problem through myself.”
- “I could still perform my core professional or creative tasks reasonably well if AI disappeared for a week.”
Link to the (Am I losing my edge?) A crirtical thinking checklist for AI users
Ideally, one should repeat this self‑rating regularly for evidence of the need to rebalance.
Ideally, after a close examination of the potential impact on your digital identity, you should consider subscribing to Legalshield or IDshield, as well. (Be delighted to introduce you to both at your convenience!)
wracton@gmail.com
williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com
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