The Dynamic Organization of Sustained Human–AI Cognition: From Construct-Level Change to Relational Structure

As generative artificial intelligence becomes a routine participant in writing, learning, information retrieval, analysis, decision making, and problem solving, human–AI cognition research must address not only whether AI changes psychological constructs, use intensity, or task performance, but also how human cognitive activity is organized beneath similar aggregate indicators. This article proposes a dynamic cognitive organization framework that shifts analysis from construct-level change to relational organization anchored in the person's current task-cognitive state under sustained AI participation. The framework distinguishes five relational dimensions: execution locus, cognitive governance, representational reorganization, process organization, and reachable cognitive space; it also proposes a path-specific recursive principle whereby interaction outcomes, costs, and experiences may selectively reweight future probabilities of different organizational pathways. Five testable propositions follow: the same AI-use intensity can correspond to different cognitive organizations; similar immediate outcomes can arise from different organizations; longitudinal organizational change need not track overall AI-use intensity; expansion of reachable cognitive space and displacement of pre-existing or emerging human-originated pathways may coexist within one episode; and recurrent cognitive organizations may redistribute cognitive practice opportunities, with accumulated differences potentially corresponding to different developmental trajectories in strategies, habits, and abilities. The contribution is an analytic level and five-dimensional relational structure for describing, comparing, measuring, and testing process differences that aggregate indicators or construct-level analyses do not uniquely determine.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-09-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22339922
Primary Topic
Embodied and Extended Cognition
Type
preprint
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The Dynamic Organization of Sustained Human–AI Cognition: From Construct-Level Change to Relational Structure

Zijian Ru
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Embodied and Extended Cognition
preprint

The Dynamic Organization of Sustained Human–AI Cognition: From Construct-Level Change to Relational Structure

Zijian Ru
preprint en

Abstract

As generative artificial intelligence becomes a routine participant in writing, learning, information retrieval, analysis, decision making, and problem solving, human–AI cognition research must address not only whether AI changes psychological constructs, use intensity, or task performance, but also how human cognitive activity is organized beneath similar aggregate indicators. This article proposes a dynamic cognitive organization framework that shifts analysis from construct-level change to relational organization anchored in the person's current task-cognitive state under sustained AI participation. The framework distinguishes five relational dimensions: execution locus, cognitive governance, representational reorganization, process organization, and reachable cognitive space; it also proposes a path-specific recursive principle whereby interaction outcomes, costs, and experiences may selectively reweight future probabilities of different organizational pathways. Five testable propositions follow: the same AI-use intensity can correspond to different cognitive organizations; similar immediate outcomes can arise from different organizations; longitudinal organizational change need not track overall AI-use intensity; expansion of reachable cognitive space and displacement of pre-existing or emerging human-originated pathways may coexist within one episode; and recurrent cognitive organizations may redistribute cognitive practice opportunities, with accumulated differences potentially corresponding to different developmental trajectories in strategies, habits, and abilities. The contribution is an analytic level and five-dimensional relational structure for describing, comparing, measuring, and testing process differences that aggregate indicators or construct-level analyses do not uniquely determine.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Le Mans Université (FR), Centre de Recherche en Éducation de Nantes (FR)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Embodied and Extended Cognition
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