Critical thinking may depend on what people change after AI
A study of 891 college students in the United States and Türkiye found links between critical thinking and how students worked with AI. Revising an AI answer was part of the pattern. The authors measured links, not the effect of a lesson. They did not show that asking students to revise will raise their scores.
What the source reports
Akgun and Toker studied 891 college students in the United States and Türkiye. Their preprint abstract looks at how AI use relates to critical thinking. The analysis links critical-thinking measures to how students worked with AI and changed its output. Confidence alone did not explain the same pattern in the digest account. These are links modeled from the students studied. The authors did not test a lesson or show that AI use caused higher scores. Nor does the abstract show the same pattern in younger students. A key question is whether a person changes an AI answer or just accepts it. That is a way to read these results, not a tested school program.
Original source
- Title
- When Does GenAI Use Support Critical Thinking? A Cross-Cultural Structural Account of Transactive Memory with GenAI
- Author
- Mahir Akgun, Sacip Toker
- Publication
- arXiv
- Date
- Wednesday, October 28, 2026