Cognitive offloading: you can’t outsource thinking

Categorised: Pedagogy | Tags: Assessment
Posted by Stuart Pedley-Smith. Last updated: August 25, 2025

The simple answer is to combat, limit or reduce your dependency on AI and use it to supplement your learning

A version of this article was first published in Pedleysmiths Blog on 31 May 2024.

Research shows that spatial memory is impaired when offloading navigation to GPS devices.

As we begin to better understand the capabilities of Generative AI and tools such as ChatGPT, there’s a need to consider their wider implications. Much has been made of the more immediate impact, students using Gen AI to produce answers that are not their own, but less is known as to what might be happening in the longer term, the effect on learning and how our brains might change over time.

There is little doubt that Gen AI tools offer substantial benefits, including access to vast amounts of knowledge, explained in an easy-to-understand manner, as well as their ability to generate original content instantly. However, there might be a significant problem of using these tools that has not yet been realised, which could have implications for learning and learning efficacy. What if we become too reliant on these technologies, asking them to solve problems before we even think about them ourselves?

This fear has found expression in debates well before Gen AI, in particular an article written by Nicholas Carr Carr, N. (2008). Is Google making us stupid? The Atlantic. in 2008 asking “is Google making us stupid’’ – spoiler alert, the debate continues. And “Digital dementia” is an interesting term coined by the neuroscientist and psychiatrist Manfred Spitzer Spitzer, M. (2012). Digitale Demenz, Droemer Knaur. in 2012 to describe the changes in cognition as a result of overusing technology.

Abundance of books makes men less studious; it destroys memory and enfeebles the mind by relieving it of too much work.
Hieronimo Squarciafico

But the focus of this blog is on cognitive offloading, which, as you might guess, is about outsourcing some of your thinking, processing or learning to a technology.

Cognitive offloading

Cognitive offloading in itself is neither good nor bad. It refers to the delegation of cognitive processes to external tools or devices such as calculators, the internet and more recently, Gen AI. In simple terms, there is a danger that by instinctively and habitually relying on Google or Chat GPT for answers, your brain skips an essential part of the learning process. That is reflecting on what you already know, pulling the information forward, and as a result reinforcing that knowledge (retrieval practice), then combining it with the new information to better understand what is being said or required.

As highlighted by the examples in the paragraph above, cognitive offloading is not a new concern, and not specifically related to Gen AI. However, the level of cognitive offloading, the sophistication in the answers and opportunities to use these technologies is increasing, and as a result, the scale and impact are greater.

We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.
Stephen Hawking

Habitual dependency

One of the main concerns is that even before the question is processed, the student instinctively plugs it into Gen AI without any attention or thought. The prompt being regurgitated from memory, “Please answer this question in 100 words”. This will lead to possibly the worst situation, where all thought is delegated, and worryingly, the answer is unquestionably believed to be true.

You don’t remember your own number?” the man asked, startled. “No,” Einstein answered. “Why should I memorise something I can so easily get from a book?

Benefits of cognitive offloading

It’s important to add that there are benefits of using cognitive offloading, for example it reduces cognitive load, which is a significant problem in learning. Technology can reduce demands on our short-term memory, freeing the brain to focus on what is more important.

Also, some disagree as to the long-term impact, arguing that short term evidence (see below) is not necessarily the best way to form long term conclusions. For example, there were concerns that calculators would affect our ability to do maths in our heads, but research found little difference whether students used calculators or not. And the debate has moved on to consider how calculators could be used to complement and reinforce mental and written methods of maths. These benefits have led some to believe that cognitive offloading increases immediate task performance but diminishes subsequent memory performance for the offloaded information.

There’s a danger in the internet and social media. The notion that information is enough, that more and more information is enough, that you don’t have to think, you just have to get more information – gets very dangerous.
Edward de Bono

Evidence

There is little research on the impact of Gen AI due to it being so new, but we have a large amount of evidence on what has happened since the introduction of the internet and search.

In the paper Information without knowledge: the effects of Internet search on learning, Fisher, Smiley and Grillo Fisher, M., Smiley, A. H., & Grillo, T. L. H. (2021). Information without knowledge: the effects of Internet search on learning. Memory found that participants who were allowed to search for information online were overconfident about their ability to comprehend the information and those who used the internet were less likely to remember what they had read.
Dr Benjamin Storm Storm, B. C., Stone, S. M., & Benjamin, A. S. (2017). Using the Internet to access information inflates future use of the Internet to access other information. Memory the lead author of Cognitive offloading: How the Internet is increasingly taking over human memory, commented, “Memory is changing. Our research shows that as we use the Internet to support and extend our memory we become more reliant on it. Whereas before we might have tried to recall something on our own, now we don’t bother.”

The student who is using it (AI) because they lack the expertise is exactly the student who is not ready to assess what it’s doing critically.
Beth McMurtie McMurtie, B. (2023). ChatGPT is Everywhere Chronicle of Higher Education.

What should you do?

To mitigate the risks of cognitive offloading, the simple answer is to limit or reduce your dependency and use Gen AI to supplement your learning rather than as a primary source. For example, ask it to come with ideas and lists but not the final text, spend your time linking the information together and shaping the arguments.

And finally – the role of mastery has changed

It used to be about mastery of content. Now, students need to understand content, but it’s much more about mastery of the interpretation and utilisation of the content.
Susan D’Agostino D’Agostino, S. (2023) Academics work to detect ChatGPT and other AI writing, Inside Higher Ed.

About Stuart Pedley-Smith

With over 30 years in professional education, Stuart is an educational strategist focussed on innovation, specialising in digital learning and evidence-based practice. After serving as Head of Learning at Kaplan Financial (UK), his focus has expanded to tackle some of the broader challenges in professional education.

He is the author/co-author of two books and a regular blogger (pedley-smith.uk).

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How to cite this article: Pedley-Smith, S. (2024). Cognitive offloading: you can’t outsource thinking. Accounting Cafe. Available at: https://accountingcafe.org/2024/05/31/cognitive-offloading/. Retrieved: [insert date].