Cognitive Agency Redistribution Theory (CART)

Thinking With Borrowed Minds introduces Cognitive Agency Redistribution Theory (CART), a psychological framework examining how AI reshapes human thinking. While existing research focuses on cognitive offloading and efficiency, this book identifies the core challenge: the redistribution of cognitive agency-who initiates, structures, and owns thought itself. CART treats AI systems as active cognitive participants that generate explanations and frame problems before users engage in reasoning.
Users may experience improved performance while unknowingly surrendering authorship, metacognitive control, and epistemic responsibility-a subtle, cumulative shift invisible to current models. The book formalizes new constructs including agency load, cognitive ownership, and agency drift, then examines psychological consequences, the role of trust in creating illusions of understanding, and implications for education and scientific practice.
Written for psychologists, educators, cognitive scientists, and policymakers, Thinking With Borrowed Minds offers a framework for preserving human intellectual agency in an AI-saturated world. By reframing intelligence as agency rather than efficiency, it establishes a timely theoretical contribution to cognitive science.