Agency Perception Through Interactions: How Students’ Verification and Revision Behaviours Influence GenAI Tool Perception

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 9:45am
  In Poster Session: Higher Education and Student Learning Outcomes

Abstract

This mixed-methods study examines how undergraduate students’ interaction behaviors shape their perceptions of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools along a tool-agent continuum. Drawing on Human-Computer Interaction and Self-Regulated Learning theories, we surveyed 427 undergraduates at a Singaporean university and conducted follow-up interviews with 15 participants. Results show that high-frequency verification and reference-only use significantly reduce tool-like perceptions, particularly among frequent users. Self-verification using personal knowledge proves more influential than formal or social verification methods. However, extensive cognitive offloading across creative tasks weakens these effects through routinization. The findings reveal that students’ perceptions of GenAI agency emerge from specific interaction patterns. This behavioral account of GenAI perception offers implications for fostering critical engagement and intellectual ownership in AI-mediated academic work.

Author

• Yao Qu, Nanyang Technological University