Do Two Minds Work Better Than One? The Use of Cognitive Offloading to an External Agent in Working Memory Across Development

Children are often faced with overloaded information. Recognising when to seek external help is essential, especially in the era of advancing AI technology. The study examined the use of cognitive offloading to a virtual agent in 4‐, 6‐year‐old Chinese children and adults. In three experiments ( N = 108, 51 girls), participants remembered locations of coloured circles with and without the presence of a virtual robot that can provide partial information in a working memory task. Results showed that starting from age six, children's memory performance improved with the presence of the virtual agent and showed effective use of cognitive offloading through division of labour during encoding. For younger children under the age of 6, the introduction of a virtual agent does not enhance children's memory performance; rather, it results in lower performance. Together the findings highlight the developing characteristics of cognitive offloading to a virtual agent in working memory.