The Absent Cognitive Baseline: Theorizing a Structural Gap in AI-Native College Students' Academic Self-Assessment

Synthesis: This paper proposes the Absent Cognitive Baseline (ACB) as a conceptual framework describing how pervasive generative AI use during secondary schooling may reduce the independent cognitive encounters on which academic self-assessment depends. Drawing on metacognitive theory, self-regulated learning, and epistemic development scholarship, the ACB framework describes a structural gap across three dimensions: inability to locate one's own cognitive boundary, miscalibrated sense of understanding from AI-generated fluency, and erosion of cognitive struggle as a recognizable part of learning. A conceptual model identifies three groups of moderating variables shaping ACB emergence.

Key Findings

This paper proposes the Absent Cognitive Baseline (ACB) as a conceptual framework describing how pervasive generative AI use during secondary schooling may reduce the independent cognitive encounters on which academic self-assessment depends. Drawing on metacognitive theory, self-regulated learning, and epistemic development scholarship, the ACB framework describes a structural gap across three dimensions: inability to locate one's own cognitive boundary, miscalibrated sense of understanding from AI-generated fluency, and erosion of cognitive struggle as a recognizable part of learning. A conceptual model identifies three groups of moderating variables shaping ACB emergence.

The work contributes to understanding of Metacognition in educational contexts, with implications for Cognitive Offloading, Self Regulated Learning.

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Citation

Jia, Y., & Xu, J. (2026). The Absent Cognitive Baseline: Theorizing a Structural Gap in AI-Native College Students' Academic Self-Assessment. EdArXiv Preprint.