AI Insight
This three-wave study of 389 South Korean design students examined how pedagogical use of generative AI relates to students' self-reported creative cognition. Students who used GenAI more frequently for coursework tasks like ideation and feedback showed higher creative self-efficacy and lower AI-related anxiety, which were associated with greater creative engagement and self-reported creative cognition. The relationship between GenAI use and creative cognition was partially indirect, with approximately 59% mediated through self-efficacy and anxiety pathways, though the observational design prevents causal conclusions.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that incorporating GenAI tools in design education may support students' creative confidence and reduce technology-related anxiety, potentially enhancing creative outcomes. This has implications for how educators integrate AI tools into creative curricula, though more research is needed to establish causal relationships.
Understand the Science
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used in design education, yet the psychological pathways associated with students’ self-reported creative cognition remain unclear. In this three-wave time-lagged correlational study, 389 design students at a South Korean university reported pedagogical GenAI use at Wave 1, creative self-efficacy and AI-related learning anxiety at Wave 2, and creative engagement and self-reported creative cognition at Wave 3. Pedagogical GenAI use referred to coursework-related use for ideation, style exploration, revision, comparison of alternatives, and feedback seeking. Covariance-based structural equation modeling showed good fit [comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.983, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.026]. Higher GenAI use was associated with higher self-efficacy (β = 0.489) and lower anxiety (β = −0.191). The total modeled association with self-reported creative cognition was β = 0.456 [95% CI [0.314, 0.604]]; its indirect components constituted approximately 59%. The GenAI-origin serial indirect association through self-efficacy and engagement was β = 0.122, whereas the corresponding anxiety-engagement association was β = 0.015. Separately, self-efficacy was indirectly associated with creative cognition through engagement (β = 0.249); this quantity does not include the preceding GenAI-use path. Because the study was observational and engagement and cognition were measured concurrently at Wave 3, the findings do not identify causal mediation. They are consistent with an appraisal-to-engagement account in which competence beliefs have a larger modeled role than anxiety reduction.