Perceived Importance of Cognitive Skills Among Computing Students in the Era of AI

2026-04-12

AI Summary

Amid the rapid proliferation of generative AI, this study investigates how undergraduate computing students’ perceptions of the importance of eleven cognitive skills evolve over time and the implications of these shifts for their learning and career development. Employing a longitudinal quantitative survey design, the research systematically compares students’ assessments at three temporal points—prior to widespread AI adoption, in the present, and projected into the future—thereby offering the first comprehensive account of changing valuations of cognitive competencies. The findings reveal a consistent expectation among students that the perceived importance of all cognitive skills will continue to decline in the future, highlighting a critical risk that overreliance on AI may undermine the cultivation of higher-order thinking abilities. These results provide urgent empirical grounding for curricular redesign and targeted educational interventions.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Affective Computing
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Artificial General Intelligence

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

The availability and increasing integration of generative AI tools have transformed computing education. While AI in education presents opportunities, it also raises new concerns about how these powerful know-it-all AI tools, which are becoming widespread, impact cognitive skill development among students. Cognitive skills are essential for academic success and professional competence. It relates to the ability to understand, analyze, evaluate, synthesize information and more. The extensive use of these AI tools can aid in cognitive offloading, freeing up cognitive resources to be used in other tasks and activities. However, cognitive offloading may inadvertently lead to diminishing cognitive involvement in learning and related activities when using AI tools. Understanding cognitive skills' impact in the era of AI is essential to align curricular design with evolving workforce demands and changing work environment and processes. To address this concern and to develop an understanding of how the importance of cognitive skills changes with increasing integration of AI, we conducted a researcher-monitored and regulated quantitative survey of undergraduate computing students. We examined students' perceptions of cognitive skills across three temporal frames: prior to widespread AI adoption (past), current informal and formal use of AI in learning contexts (present), and future with even more AI integration in professional environments (future). In the study, students rated the importance of 11 cognitive skills. Our analysis reveals that students expect all 11 cognitive skills to be of diminishing importance in the future, when AI use and integration increases. Our findings highlight the need for educational interventions that explicitly reinforce cognitive skill development within learning environments that are now often relying on AI.

Problem

• cognitive skills
• generative AI
• computing education
• cognitive offloading
• student perception

Innovation

• cognitive skills
• generative AI
• computing education
• cognitive offloading
• temporal perception