THE PROBLEM OF COGNITION AND CULTURAL BREADTH IN THE USE OF AI
The problems associated with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which
are increasing daily in everyday life and in schools, are not limited to
simply understanding how AI works, but especially to how to structure one's
thinking to know how to ask questions and analyze the answers it
provides1. This reminds me of the famous Brazilian educator Paulo
Freire and his book "For a Pedagogy of Questioning." Knowing how to ask
questions is fundamental in any area of knowledge.
Unfortunately, especially nowadays, few people actually know how to
organize their thoughts due to a lack of cognitive training, and
consequently, the much-desired metacognition doesn’t
occur2.
Today, before training someone to understand how AI works, even though that
seems fundamental to me, we need to train cognition. Something important –
and sad – that AI is revealing, and which was masked in society, is the lack
of capacity to structure thought and articulate ideas. This seems to be
aggravated by the excessive use of social media, which is causing the
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) to be underutilized3. Since it is
directly responsible for self-control and critical and analytical thinking,
these functions cease to operate, reinforcing the inability to develop
metacognition. From this perspective, the parts of our brain that most often
act in its place, in the sense of something like "having to think in some
way without the PFC ready and trained," are the Amygdala, the Hippocampus,
and the Basal Ganglia, which are more geared towards emotional and impulsive
responses (without the necessary reflection)4.
This is a very serious point that we should all discuss in all areas of
knowledge. In practice, people are finding it increasingly difficult to
express their thoughts because they have not developed the ability to
structure them. It is a matter of cultural expansion and cognitive training
that is urgently needed, as it seriously impacts productivity, education,
etc5. Simply put, there is no way to be productive and educated
with even a minimum level of quality without developing cognition, logical
reasoning, and deep thinking, based on the broadest possible culture, that
is, the "data" to be processed by the individual.
The necessary data that feeds into the PFC and that will be processed by it is increasingly scarce given the
prevailing low cultural breadth. Without data in sufficient quantity and
quality, it becomes difficult to create a minimally deep and critical
thought structure.
Musical culture can be a good example: many people hear music, but few
listen to it. It's the difference between hearing background noise and
appreciating the pleasurable details of each note played on the piano within
the context of a beautiful symphony. Popular music, in general, has become a
consumer object where having fun is more important than feeling and
appreciating. Mario Vargas Llosa masterfully addresses this issue in Civilization of the Spectacle, where culture has transformed into
entertainment, becoming superficial and geared towards mass
consumption6. These are the types of data that will be available
for processing by the PFC.
In summary, we need two fundamental items to develop more critical and
profound thinking: a processor and long-term memory adequate for that
processing. The first is compromised by disuse; the second has more idle
capacity than desirable and/or irrelevant data for the type of thinking in
question.
Note: In fact, recent doctoral research, such as that conducted at
Middlesex University (Baldeo, 2026), already provides neurobehavioral
evidence of the attenuation of executive functions in the prefrontal
cortex resulting from excessive cognitive offloading in generative AI
tools7.
References
1 - Shapiro, H., Souto-Otero, M., & Watermeyer, R. (2026).
Metacognitive AI literacy: going beyond the AI skills gap agenda.
Learning, Media and Technology, 1–15.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2026.2652638
2 - Westover, JH The Metacognitive Paradox of AI-Assisted Creativity: A
Theoretical Extension. Preprints 2026, 2026030121.
https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202603.0121.v1
3 - Satani A, Satani KK, Barodia P, Joshi H. Modern Day High: The
Neurocognitive Impact of Social Media Usage. Cureus. 2025 Jul
8;17(7):e87496. doi: 10.7759/cureus.87496. PMID: 40777702; PMCID:
PMC12329480.
4 - De D, El Jamal M, Aydemir E, Khera A. Social Media Algorithms and Teen
Addiction: Neurophysiological Impact and Ethical Considerations. Cureus.
2025 Jan 8;17(1):e77145. doi: 10.7759/cureus.77145. PMID: 39925596; PMCID:
PMC11804976.
5 - Lodge, Jason M.; Loble, Leslie (2026). Artificial intelligence,
cognitive offloading and implications for education. University of
Technology Sydney. Report.
https://doi.org/10.71741/4pyxmbnjaq.31302475.v2
6 - VARGAS LLOSA, Mario. The Civilization of Spectacle: An X-ray of Our
Time. Translated by Ivone Benedetti. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2013.
7 - Baldeo, S. (2026). Generative artificial intelligence reliance and
executive function attenuation: Behavioral evidence of cognitive offload in
high-use adults. Technology, Mind, and Behavior. Advance online publication.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tmb0000191
Image used in the text:
https://pixabay.com/pt/users/hainguyenrp-11104550/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4961452
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