Can AI Help Kids Think Better? What New Research Says About Learning in the Age of Algorithms
Insights from a 2025 longitudinal study on cognitive growth and AI tools
Artificial intelligence is changing how people learn to think. Not just what they know — but how they reason, decide, and solve problems. A new study from researchers in Pakistan takes that question literally, asking: Can AI tools make us smarter?
The findings, published in the Critical Review of Social Sciences Studies (2025), offer early evidence that AI can strengthen core cognitive skills like problem-solving and memory — especially for young children. But they also reveal important limits and risks that educators should note as classrooms increasingly adopt AI-based learning tools.
What the Study Found
Researchers followed 200 participants — children aged 6–8 and 9–12, plus adults aged 18–35 and 36+ — over several months as they used adaptive AI tools designed to help with reasoning and problem-solving. The team tracked changes in memory, logic, and critical thinking through pre- and post-tests, surveys, and observation.
The results were striking:
Children aged 6–8 showed the greatest cognitive improvement, followed by children 9–12.
Adults improved too, but the gains were smaller, especially among participants over 36.
Higher engagement produced stronger results. The more frequently and consistently users interacted with AI, the greater their cognitive development.
In short: early learners benefit most from AI-enhanced problem-solving, while older users experience incremental cognitive boosts, mostly in memory and decision-making.
Why Younger Minds Benefit More
The authors link this pattern to cognitive plasticity — the brain’s ability to form new neural pathways through learning. Younger children, still in what Piaget called the concrete operational stage of development, learn best when they can manipulate information through direct feedback and experimentation.
AI tools like adaptive tutors, interactive games, or personalized learning apps fit that developmental sweet spot. They challenge students just enough to stretch their thinking without overwhelming them, reinforcing reasoning, reflection, and persistence.
Adults, on the other hand, rely on established cognitive structures that make it harder to adopt new problem-solving patterns. While AI can still support critical thinking, it doesn’t reshape habits as easily as it does in childhood.
Designing Smarter Tools for Every Age
The study’s authors make a crucial point: AI tools should be developmentally designed.
For younger learners, that means interactive interfaces, frequent feedback, and scaffolded challenges that grow with the child’s skill. For older learners, AI tools should emphasize reflection, metacognition, and complex reasoning — not rote optimization.
They also caution against overreliance. When children outsource too much thinking to technology, creativity and independent reasoning can stagnate. The best learning happens when AI complements, not replaces, human curiosity.
Why It Matters for Educators and Designers
This study reinforces what Tech It Out Books advocates through our DIG-IT: Class Garden literacy program: children need guided, story-based experiences that connect technology to curiosity, not competition.
By integrating research like this into our curriculum design, we help teachers create learning environments where AI serves as a partner in thought, not a substitute for it.
The future of education will depend on how well we understand the psychology behind intelligent tools — and how responsibly we use them to nurture the minds of tomorrow.
