Artificial intelligence is increasingly praised for making us sharper, faster, and more productive. From drafting text to solving complex reasoning problems, tools like ChatGPT promise cognitive augmentation at scale. Yet a growing body of psychological research suggests that something subtler, and potentially more consequential, is happening alongside these gains. AI may be improving what we do while quietly distorting how well we understand our own competence.

A recent study published in Computers in Human Behavior offers one of the clearest empirical demonstrations of this tension to date. The researchers examined what happens when people use generative AI to complete logical reasoning tasks, and how accurately they can judge their own performance in the process. The results are both reassuring and unsettling.

The research team conducted two experiments using logical reasoning problems drawn from the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), a domain well suited for studying both performance and metacognition.

In the first study, 246 participants in the United States solved 20 reasoning problems using a custom interface. Each question appeared alongside a ChatGPT window, and participants were required to consult the AI at least once per item, either to........

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