Thinking Like a Scientist: Can Interactive Simulations Foster Critical AI Literacy?

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhao, Yiling, Michal, Audrey, Thain, Nithum, Subramonyam, Hari
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhao, Yiling
Michal, Audrey
Thain, Nithum
Subramonyam, Hari
author_facet Zhao, Yiling
Michal, Audrey
Thain, Nithum
Subramonyam, Hari
contents As AI systems shape individual and societal decisions, fostering critical AI literacy is essential. Traditional approaches, such as blog articles, static lessons, and social media discussions, often fail to support deep conceptual understanding and critical engagement. This study examines whether interactive simulations can help learners think like a scientist by engaging them in hypothesis testing, experimentation, and direct observation of AI behavior. In a controlled study with 605 participants, we assess how interactive AI tutorials impact learning of key concepts such as fairness, dataset representativeness, and bias in language models. Results show that interactive simulations effectively enhance AI literacy across topics, supporting greater knowledge transfer and self-reported confidence, though engagement alone does not predict learning. This work contributes to the growing field of AI literacy education, highlighting how interactive, inquiry-driven methodologies can better equip individuals to critically engage with AI in their daily lives.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_21090
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Thinking Like a Scientist: Can Interactive Simulations Foster Critical AI Literacy?
Zhao, Yiling
Michal, Audrey
Thain, Nithum
Subramonyam, Hari
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
As AI systems shape individual and societal decisions, fostering critical AI literacy is essential. Traditional approaches, such as blog articles, static lessons, and social media discussions, often fail to support deep conceptual understanding and critical engagement. This study examines whether interactive simulations can help learners think like a scientist by engaging them in hypothesis testing, experimentation, and direct observation of AI behavior. In a controlled study with 605 participants, we assess how interactive AI tutorials impact learning of key concepts such as fairness, dataset representativeness, and bias in language models. Results show that interactive simulations effectively enhance AI literacy across topics, supporting greater knowledge transfer and self-reported confidence, though engagement alone does not predict learning. This work contributes to the growing field of AI literacy education, highlighting how interactive, inquiry-driven methodologies can better equip individuals to critically engage with AI in their daily lives.
title Thinking Like a Scientist: Can Interactive Simulations Foster Critical AI Literacy?
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21090