The relationship between student interaction with generative artificial intelligence and learning achievement: serial mediating roles of self-efficacy and cognitive engagement

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) shocked the world with its unprecedented ability and raised significant tensions in the education field. Educators inevitably transition to an educational future that embraces GAI rather than shuns it. Understanding the mechanism between students interacting with GAI tools and their achievement is important for educators and schools, but relevant empirical evidence is relatively lacking. Due to the characteristics of personalization and real-time interactivity of GAI tools, we propose that the students–GAI interaction would affect their learning achievement through serial mediators of self-efficacy and cognitive engagement. Based on questionnaire surveys that include 389 participants as the objective, this study finds that: (1) in total, there is a significantly positive relationship between student–GAI interaction and learning achievement. (2) This positive relationship is mediated by self-efficacy, with a significant mediation effect value of 0.015. (3) Cognitive engagement also acts as a mediator in the mechanism between the student–GAI interaction and learning achievement, evidenced by a significant and relatively strong mediating effect value of 0.046. (4) Self-efficacy and cognitive engagement in series mediate this positive association, with a serial mediating effect value of 0.011, which is relatively small in comparison but also shows significance. In addition, the propensity score matching (PSM) method is applied to alleviate self-selection bias, reinforcing the validity of the results. The findings offer empirical evidence for the incorporation of GAI in teaching and learning.