Artificial intelligence literacy moderating the effects of artificial intelligence use on cognitive outcomes including memory retention decision making and cognitive laziness

Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to restructure the ways in which people relate to information, perform decision making functions, and perform cognitive activities. The study explores how the use of AI affects the three major cognitive outcomes including perceived memory retention, decision making, and cognitive laziness. The study is founded on the Extended Mind Theory and Cognitive Offloading Theory and assesses the moderating position of AI literacy in these links. The survey was conducted among students studying in public universities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and provided a final analyzable survey sample of 518 respondents. SmartPLS 4.0 was used to analyze the data with the purpose of evaluating the structural relationships and moderation effect. The empirical evidence reveals that the application of AI has a statistically significant effect on the cognitive outcome, especially on the memory retention perception and decision-making. Whereas in some cases the moderating effect of AI literacy was statistically significant, the effect was small. Importantly, the moderating effect of AI literacy on the relationship between AI use and cognitive laziness was not confirmed since the p-value of the two variables exceeded the traditional level of significance. The findings contribute to our understanding of the contribution of daily exposure to AI tools to cognitive behavior and the value of digital literacy in reducing the impact of these tools.