Not all cognitive offloading is equal: distinguishing dependent and autonomous offloading to generative AI

Abstract

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT now perform core cognitive operations—reasoning, synthesis, evaluation, and creative generation—on users' behalf, raising urgent questions for educational psychology about how AI use relates to cognitive development. Yet research on cognitive offloading has largely treated AI use as a unidimensional phenomenon, obscuring a theoretically consequential distinction: whether AI substitutes for the user's own thinking or scaffolds it. Drawing on the autonomous–dependent help typology and self-determination theory, the present study introduces and examines a distinction between dependent cognitive offloading (delegating core thinking to AI) and autonomous cognitive offloading (using AI as a scaffold while retaining cognitive agency). In a three-wave time-lagged survey study (N = 589 university students and early-career knowledge workers), we tested a dual-pathway model linking the two offloading modes to four perceived downstream cognitive outcomes—autonomous capability, creativity, deep processing, and independent judgment—through cognitive agency transfer and intrinsic motivation. Dependent offloading was positively associated with cognitive agency transfer and negatively associated with intrinsic motivation, which in turn were linked to poorer perceived outcomes. Autonomous offloading was positively associated with intrinsic motivation and more favorable perceived outcomes. Metacognitive monitoring attenuated the link between dependent offloading and cognitive agency transfer but did not buffer the negative motivational association. Notably, both offloading modes yielded comparable immediate benefits despite divergent downstream correlates, suggesting that potentially maladaptive AI engagement may be difficult for users to detect from immediate experience. These findings highlight the manner of AI engagement—not merely its frequency—as a key factor in understanding its associations with perceived cognitive functioning, and point to practical strategies for educators, learners, and AI tool designers seeking to harness AI without undermining cognitive autonomy.