AI Studies and Broader Internet Use - Aug 2025

Hey guys. Please DONT ask any GPT to generate and cite your research papers. We’ve already had many instances of it hallucinating. One of my students got caught using a made up paper called Twain et al (2023)…

Instead, this is my personal compendium for references on AI, digital device use, and their impact on cognition. Specifically made this with academics and psychology students in mind. Some of these readings are more foundational and would work well if you’re writing about how smartphones, social media, or AI tools influence attention, memory, learning, critical thinking, or metacognition.

Soooo if you’re planning an assignment on AI and cognition, technology use and mental processes, or the psychological implications of relying on digital tools in everyday life, this list should give you a solid starting point for both background theory and more current research.

Good luck, fellow students, and I hope this helps make the research side a bit easier. c:

LLMs & Brain Activity - Read this!

This is a paper I truly recommend for people who are taking 3003NSC - Neuroscience. It’s a lot more technical, 10% of our cohort referenced this paper in their assignments. It is a very important paper and the evidence is extremely solid. Critique it to hell.

• Kosmyna et al. (2025) – “Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task” EEG study over 4 months: LLM-assisted writing shows weakest frontal-parietal engagement and poorer later recall, interpreted as “cognitive debt” from offloading to ChatGPT. arXiv preprint ResearchGate Project site

AI Dependence, Cognitive Offloading & Critical Thinking

• Gerlich (2025) - “AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking” Large survey linking frequent AI-tool use to higher cognitive offloading and lower critical-thinking scores, even after controlling for age and education.
  Open access article

• Tian & Zhang (2025) - “Learners’ AI dependence and critical thinking: The psychological mechanism of fatigue and the social buffering role of AI literacy” (Acta Psychologica) Shows that AI dependence predicts lower critical thinking via mental fatigue, with AI literacy partly buffering the effect in university students. <— Big problem. Article on ScienceDirect

• Ioannidis, Grant & Chamberlain (2022) - “Problematic usage of the internet and cognition” (Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences) Review linking problematic internet use to deficits in inhibitory control and decision-making, framing digital overuse as a control/reward-system issue.
  Journal article

Search Engines, “Google Effect” & Memory Offloading

• Sparrow, Liu & Wegner (2011) - “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips” Classic experiments showing people remember where to find information more than the information itself when they expect easy online access. One of the earlier ones that say tech is bad for you. And hey - who knows, our literacy and speech does have a noticeable difference ever since google… PubMed entry
  Science article

• Gong & Yang (2024) - “Google effects on memory: A meta-analytical review of the media effects of intensive Internet search behavior” Meta-analysis confirming a robust “Google effect” of intensive search behaviour on memory patterns (more externalisation, shallower encoding). Open access article

• Risko & Gilbert (2016) - “Cognitive offloading” Broad review of how people offload memory, computation and decision-making onto external tools, and the cognitive consequences.
  Journal article

Smartphone Overuse and Brain Structure

• Solly et al. (2022) - “Structural gray matter differences in Problematic Usage of the Internet: A systematic review and meta-analysis” VBM meta-analysis showing gray-matter reductions in medial/superior frontal gyri and anterior cingulate in problematic internet users vs controls. - Remember this is for Problematic usage. It is important to note Addiction has a similar affect regardless of whether it is drugs, porn or alcohol.
  PubMed entry

• Sun et al. (2023) - “Internet addiction-induced brain structure and function alterations: a systematic review and meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity studies” Meta-analysis linking internet addiction to altered structure and connectivity in prefrontal, limbic, and default-mode networks.
  PubMed entry

• Liu et al. (2023) - “Structural and Functional Neural Alterations in Internet Addiction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” Summarises MRI/fMRI evidence of reduced gray matter and disrupted connectivity in prefrontal and limbic regions among individuals with internet addiction.
  Full text on PMC

• Lin et al. (2022) - “Structural and Functional Neural Correlates in Individuals with Excessive Smartphone Use: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” - Finds reduced brain volume and altered functional activity (especially in prefrontal regions) associated with excessive smartphone use, clearer in adolescents.
  Open access article

• Ding et al. (2023) - “The Effects of Digital Addiction on Brain Function and Mental Health” Narrative review of internet/gaming/smartphone addiction, highlighting structural and functional brain changes plus mental-health impacts.
  PDF

• Méndez et al. (2024) - “Effects of internet and smartphone addiction on cognitive functions and brain structure” High-level review/meta-analysis linking digital addictions to reward-system and prefrontal changes and to impairments in attention, working memory and executive function.
  Article on ScienceDirect

Broader Cognition & Problematic Internet Use

• Ioannidis et al. (2019) - “Cognitive deficits in problematic internet use: Meta-analysis of 40 studies” Meta-analysis showing consistent deficits in inhibitory control and decision-making in problematic internet use; some evidence for attention and working-memory issues.
  Journal article

• Ioannidis, Grant & Chamberlain (2022) - “Problematic usage of the internet and cognition” Integrates cognitive findings and argues PUI is best understood via impaired control and altered reward processing.
  Journal article