@GossiTheDog not gonna lie: this work is kinda problematic, especially when I see how they frame their results.
The first study simply represents a modular change problem. If you had help you will always struggle initially if that help is cut off suddenly, and the ability only slowly recovers.
The second, "better" version (acc to authors) is also funny. Once you read "Participants who used AI for hints showed no significant impairments relative to control", it's easy to guess what happened. Lazy people did not take the task seriously and used AI for answers. Of course they'll crash.
This rather confirms my personal notion that AI is mostly enabling laziness rather than killing thinking ability (as I stated here some time ago: https://k4tana.github.io/blog/2025/06/04/AI-Nuanced-Take.html).
Edit: Additionally those effect sizes are not really much to write home about, especially in the second experiment. Statistical significance alone does not mean practical relevance.