From generation to judgment: the multidimensional structure of design thinking mindset and differences across learning stages in AIGC-supported fashion film design learning

Introduction Artificial intelligence-generated content (AIGC) is changing how design alternatives are generated in fashion film design learning, enabling students to obtain large numbers of comparable and iteratively refinable visual outcomes within a short period. However, expanded generative capacity does not, by itself, determine how learners interpret, evaluate, experiment with, and select among uncertain outcomes. In this human–AI collaborative creative environment, empirical evidence remains limited on whether learners’ design-related psychological tendencies form a distinguishable multidimensional structure that is comparable across learning stages. Design Thinking Mindset (DTM) provides a multidimensional psychological framework for addressing this issue. Methods Drawing on Vignoli et al.’s DTM framework, this study examined five dimensions—Uncertainty and Risk, Empathy, Experimentation, Abductive Reasoning, and Creative Confidence—through a cross-sectional survey of 409 first-year and third-year students from three Chinese universities who had experience with AIGC fashion film design projects. Confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance testing across year groups were used to examine the five-dimensional structure and its measurement comparability, followed by latent mean comparisons. Results The five DTM dimensions formed a correlated yet distinguishable structure and demonstrated measurement comparability across year groups. Third-year students had significantly higher latent means on all five dimensions, with the largest descriptive standardized difference point estimates observed for Abductive Reasoning and Creative Confidence. Discussion These findings provide empirical support for the applicability of five selected DTM dimensions in AIGC-supported fashion film design learning and reveal distinct patterns of self-reported psychological tendencies across year groups. From an educational perspective, the results suggest that AIGC-supported design education should attend not only to the generation of creative alternatives but also to learners’ psychological orientations toward uncertainty, experimentation, audience understanding, creative reasoning, and confidence in creative work.