# How AI Assistance Affects Human Skill Development: A Study of Learning with Logic Puzzles

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.23543 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.23543/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Aug 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [To Trust or to Think: Cognitive Forcing Functions Can Reduce Overreliance on AI in AI-assisted Decision-making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09692/) (2021)
- [Explanations Can Reduce Overreliance on AI Systems During Decision-Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06823/) (2022)
- [Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08872/) (2025)
- [Do People Engage Cognitively with AI? Impact of AI Assistance on Incidental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.05402/) (2022)
- [The Role of Domain Expertise in User Trust and the Impact of First Impressions with Intelligent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.09100/) (2020)
- [Towards Human-AI Complementarity with Prediction Sets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17544/) (2024)
- [Accuracy-Time Tradeoffs in AI-Assisted Decision Making under Time Pressure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.07458/) (2023)
- [AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Hurts Independent Performance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.04721/) (2026)
- [Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI: A Synthesis of the CHI 2025 Tools for Thought Workshop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21036/) (2025)
- [The Impact of AI Usage and Informativeness on Skill Development in Logical Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.21695/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

While AI assistance can improve human task performance in the short term, it may also undermine the development of skills in the longer term. We examine this tension in a controlled logic-puzzle experiment involving on-demand AI assistance, where participants complete tasks before, during, and after AI is available. By experimentally varying AI request costs, we find that lower-cost assistance induces more frequent AI use. We also find that participants who request AI assistance during the AI-access phase perform worse at the task after assistance is removed, and their subsequent unassisted performance is overestimated when predicted from earlier AI-assisted performance. We use a Bayesian latent ability model to separate initial ability, post-AI ability, and participant-specific skill change, while estimating how independent reasoning during the AI-access phase relates to skill development. The results show that greater independent problem-solving effort is associated with larger gains in latent ability, consistent with the interpretation that skill development is weaker when AI assistance substitutes for independent reasoning.