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Main Authors: Inoshita, Keito, Omura, Michiaki, Yamanaka, Tsukasa, Maeda, Go, Tsuji, Kentaro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21228
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author Inoshita, Keito
Omura, Michiaki
Yamanaka, Tsukasa
Maeda, Go
Tsuji, Kentaro
author_facet Inoshita, Keito
Omura, Michiaki
Yamanaka, Tsukasa
Maeda, Go
Tsuji, Kentaro
contents While AI-assisted writing has been widely reported to improve essay quality, its impact on the structural diversity of student thinking remains unexplored. Analyzing 6,875 essays across five conditions (Human-only, AI-only, and three Human+AI prompt strategies), we provide the first empirical evidence of a Quality-Homogenization Tradeoff, in which substantial quality gains co-occur with significant homogenization. The effect is dimension-specific: cohesion architecture lost 70-78% of its variance, whereas perspective plurality was diversified. Convergence target analysis further revealed that AI-augmented essays were pulled toward AI structural patterns yet deviated significantly from the Human-AI axis, indicating simultaneous partial replacement and partial emergence. Crucially, prompt specificity reversed homogenization into diversification on argument depth, demonstrating that homogenization is not an intrinsic property of AI but a function of interaction design.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_21228
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Does AI Homogenize Student Thinking? A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Structural Convergence in AI-Augmented Essays
Inoshita, Keito
Omura, Michiaki
Yamanaka, Tsukasa
Maeda, Go
Tsuji, Kentaro
Artificial Intelligence
While AI-assisted writing has been widely reported to improve essay quality, its impact on the structural diversity of student thinking remains unexplored. Analyzing 6,875 essays across five conditions (Human-only, AI-only, and three Human+AI prompt strategies), we provide the first empirical evidence of a Quality-Homogenization Tradeoff, in which substantial quality gains co-occur with significant homogenization. The effect is dimension-specific: cohesion architecture lost 70-78% of its variance, whereas perspective plurality was diversified. Convergence target analysis further revealed that AI-augmented essays were pulled toward AI structural patterns yet deviated significantly from the Human-AI axis, indicating simultaneous partial replacement and partial emergence. Crucially, prompt specificity reversed homogenization into diversification on argument depth, demonstrating that homogenization is not an intrinsic property of AI but a function of interaction design.
title Does AI Homogenize Student Thinking? A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Structural Convergence in AI-Augmented Essays
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.21228