The role of cognitive laziness as a mediator between the intensity of AI use and critical thinking ability among university students

Abstract

Departing from the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in higher education, which on the one hand helps academic efficiency, but on the other hand has the potential to reduce the quality of thinking processes when used excessively. This study aims to analyze the effect of AI usage intensity on students’ critical thinking ability and to examine the role of cognitive laziness as a mediator. The method used was a correlational quantitative study with a survey approach involving 200 students of Universitas Negeri Malang from several study programs (53% female; 46.9% male). Data were collected using a questionnaire containing three scales: AI usage intensity (10 items), cognitive laziness (adapted from LAS; 9 items), and critical thinking (12 items). The analysis was conducted using PLS-SEM. The results showed that the intensity of AI use negatively affected critical thinking (β = −0.275), while the effect of AI usage intensity on cognitive laziness was very weak (β = 0.020) with R² = 0.000. Cognitive laziness affected critical thinking (β = 0.438), but the mediation effect was not strongly supported because the indirect effect was very small (≈0.0088). The model explained 26.3% of the variation in critical thinking (R² = 0.263). These findings indicate that AI use is associated with a decline in critical thinking mainly through direct effects, while the mediation mechanism needs to be re-examined using stronger instruments.