The cognition thread is about using software to study how thinking changes when tools enter the loop.

AI can compress exploration, surface adjacent ideas, and challenge a first framing. It can also hide uncertainty under fluent language. That makes it valuable as an instrument, but risky as an authority.

The experiments here ask practical questions: how does a tool affect attention, memory, comparison, reflection, and learning? Where does it extend human capability, and where does it weaken the habits that make judgment possible?