CHI2025 Workshop on Tools for Thought:

Research and Design for Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI

Saturday, April 26, 2025 — 9AM-5:50PM JST — Yokohama, Japan

About

GenAI radically widens the scope and capability of automation for work, learning, and creativity. While impactful, it also changes workflows, raising questions about its effects on cognition, including critical thinking and learning. Yet GenAI also offers opportunities for designing “tools for thought” that protect and augment cognition. Such systems provoke critical thinking, provide personalized tutoring, or enable novel ways of sensemaking, among other approaches.

How does GenAI change workflows and human cognition? What are opportunities and challenges for designing GenAI systems that protect and augment thinking? Which theories, perspectives, and methods are relevant? This workshop aims to develop a multidisciplinary community interested in exploring these questions to protect against the erosion, and fuel the augmentation, of human cognition using GenAI.

Feel free to join our Discord server, where you can ask questions, or discuss the topics of this workshop.

Key Dates

Deadline for submissions: ~~Thursday, February 13 2025~~ Thursday, February 20 2025 AoE (extended)
Notifications of acceptance: ~~Friday, February 28 2025~~ Monday, March 10, 2025 AoE (extended)
Camera-ready: Friday, April 11 2025 AoE
Day of Workshop: Saturday, April 26 2025 JST

Workshop Program

9:00–9:30 (30min)
Welcome and introduction

9:30–10:45 (75min)
The impact of GenAI on cognition and workflows (lightning talks + panel discussion)

Generative AI as a Tool for Designerly Thinking (Peter Dalsgaard)
Protecting Human Cognition in the Age of AI (Anjali Singh)
From Consumption to Collaboration: Measuring Interaction Patterns to Augment Human Cognition in Open-Ended Tasks (Joshua Holstein)
Beyond Tools: Understanding How Heavy Users Integrate LLMs into Everyday Tasks and Decision-Making (Eunhye Kim)
Supporting Students’ Reading and Cognition with AI (Chris Fu)

10:45–11:10 (25min)
Coffee break (and optional informal demos)

11:10–12:40 (90min)
Designing for cognitive protection and augmentation: User research (lightning talks + panel discussion)

Augmenting Expert Cognition in the Age of Generative AI: Insights from Document-Centric Knowledge Work (Alexa Siu)
Designing for Agency in LLM-Infused Writing Support Tools for Science Journalism (Sachita Nishal)
User-Centered AI for Data Exploration – Rethinking GenAI’s Role in Visualization (Kathrin Schnizer)

Designing for cognitive protection and augmentation: Systems (lightning talks + panel discussion)

Schemex: Discovering Design Patterns from Examples through Iterative Abstraction and Refinement (Sitong Wang)
Supporting AI-Augmented Meta-Decision Making with InDecision (Jessica Mindel)
From Overload to Insight: Structuring Creative Ideation through Structuring Inspiration (Yaqing Yang)

12:40–14:10 (90min)
Lunch

14:10–15:25 (75min)
Designing for cognitive protection and augmentation: Design approaches (lightning talks + panel discussion)

Prompting by Doing: How Direct Manipulation can Protect and Augment Writers’ Thoughts in AI Tools (Tim Zindulka)
Feedforward in Generative AI: Opportunities for a Design Space (Bryan Min)
Bridging the Cognitive Gap: Cross-Modality Perception in AI-Generated Content (Can Liu)
Interacting with Thoughtful AI (Xingyu Bruce Liu)
Something In Between Formal Spec and Informal Representation (Ryan Yen)

15:40–16:05 (25min)
Coffee break (and optional informal demos)

16:05–17:20 (75min)
Co-ideation session: Mapping research and design opportunities

17:20–17:50 (30min)
Next steps and closing

Note that the workshop will be in-person only to facilitate in-depth discussion among all participants, and to avoid challenges in ensuring equitable opportunities for participation between in-person and remote attendees. While we acknowledge that this decision would unfortunately exclude those who cannot travel to attend in person, we believe that this trade-off would result in a superior experience for those who do attend, and is better aligned with the primary community-building aim of the workshop. Alongside synchronous in-person engagement, we will use our Discord server, which anyone is free to join, for asynchronous discussions before, during, and after the workshop.

Papers

All accepted papers for this workshop are available in our GitHub repository. You can browse and download the PDF files directly from there.

Author	Title
Dinesh Ayyappan and David A. Joyner	Understanding, Protecting, and Augmenting Human Cognition with Generative AI
Jessica Y. Bo et al.	Who’s the Leader? Analyzing Novice Workflows in LLM-Assisted Debugging of Machine Learning Code
Chance Casteñeda and Jessica Mindel et al.	Supporting AI-Augmented Meta-Decision Making with InDecision
Manni Cheung	From Answer Machines to Ignorant Co-Learners: Designing AI to Augment Rather than Replace Human Thinking
Peter Dalsgaard	Generative AI as a Tool for Designerly Thinking
Yue (Chris) Fu and Alexis Hiniker	Supporting Students’ Reading and Cognition with AI
Frederic Gmeiner et al.	Designing Metacognitive Support Interactions to Augment People’s Thinking in Complex (Co-)Creative Tasks
Joshua Holstein et al.	From Consumption to Collaboration: Measuring Interaction Patterns to Augment Human Cognition in Open-Ended Tasks
Janet G. Johnson and Steven R. Rick	The Promise and Peril of Collaboration: Fostering Appropriate Reliance When Problem-Solving with GenAI
Anjali Khurana and Parmit K. Chilana	Designing Semi-Automated Copilots: Balancing User Control and Guidance for Effective Human-Agent Collaboration
Eunhye Kim et al.	Beyond Tools: Understanding How Heavy Users Integrate LLMs into Everyday Tasks and Decision-Making
Markus Langer	Why Should we Invest Epistemic Labor in a World of Generative AI?
Joanne Leong	Designing Transformative Lenses to Aid Thinking
Can Liu and Wengxi Li	Bridging the Cognitive Gap: Cross-Modality Perception in AI-Generated Content
Xingyu Bruce Liu et al.	Interacting with Thoughtful AI
Bryan Min and Haijun Xia	Feedforward in Generative AI: Opportunities for a Design Space
Anirban Mukhopadhyay and Kurt Luther	Tailoring Generative AI to Augment Creative Leadership in Capture-The-Flag Development
Syeda Masooma Naqvi et al.	Computational Reification of Creativity: How Generative AI Reshapes Creative Cognition
Sachita Nishal et al.	Designing for Agency in LLM-Infused Writing Support Tools for Science Journalism
Kris Pilcher and Esen K. Tütüncü	Purposefully Induced Psychosis (PIP): Embracing Hallucination as Imagination in Large Language Models
James Prather and Brent N. Reeves	Pedagogy for critical engagement with Generative AI
Chris Quintana and Rebecca M. Quintana	Students’ Experiences Using Generative AI Within Learning Experience Design Workflows
Kathrin Schnizer and Sven Mayer	User-Centered AI for Data Exploration – Rethinking GenAI’s Role in Visualization
Anjali Singh et al.	Protecting Human Cognition in the Age of AI
Alexa Siu and Raymond Fok	Augmenting Expert Cognition in the Age of Generative AI: Insights from Document-Centric Knowledge Work
Petr Slovak	Tools for (Changing) Thought: Scaffolding Cognitive Skills Development within Mental Health Contexts
Sangho Suh	The Next Leap Forward in Human Intelligence: Expanding & Exploring Complex Spaces of Thought
Nick von Felten	Beyond Isolation: Towards an Interactionist Perspective on Human Bias and AI Bias
Sitong Wang and Lydia B. Chilton	Schemex: Discovering Design Patterns from Examples through Iterative Abstraction and Refinement
Haijun Xia	Generative, Malleable, and Personal Information Environment
Yaqing Yang et al.	From Overload to Insight: Scaffolding Creative Ideation through Structuring Inspiration
Ryan Yen et al.	Something In Between Formal Spec and Informal Representation
Zelun Tony Zhang and Leon Reicherts	Augmenting Human Cognition With Generative AI: Lessons From AI-Assisted Decision-Making
Tim Zindulka et al.	Prompting by Doing: How Direct Manipulation can Protect and Augment Writers’ Thoughts in AI Tools

Organizers

Lev Tankelevitch
Senior Researcher in Microsoft Research, within the Tools for Thought group. His research explores how to augment human agency in collaborative knowledge work, including using metacognition as a lens to understand and improve human-AI interaction, and to design GenAI systems that improve intentionality in collaboration. He has a background in applied behavioural science, having previously worked at the Behavioural Insights Team, and in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Elena Glassman
Assistant Professor at Harvard University's Paulson School Of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on building AI-resilient interfaces that support meta-cognition through a variety of novel interface features and affordances that enhance user's reading, writing, and sensemaking abilities.
Aniket Kittur
Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. His research explores combining human and machine intelligence to scale up sensemaking and innovation in domains including scientific literature, decision making, productivity, and analogical design.
Mina Lee
Assistant Professor in Computer Science, Data Science Institute, and Cognitive Science (affiliated) at the University of Chicago. Her research centers around Writing with AI, especially how AI is transforming our writing process, the content we produce, and our identities as writers. She was named one of MIT Technology Review's Korean Innovators under 35 in 2022.
Srishti Palani
Senior Researcher at Tableau Research. She researches at the intersection of Cognitive Science, Human-Centered AI and Human-Computer Interaction. Her research investigates how people think and behave while exploring, sensemaking and being creative and with Generative AI and information on the Web.
Majeed Kazemitabaar
PhD candidate at University of Toronto, where he is researching on and developing tools that balance productivity and cognitive engagement in AI-assisted programming. He has studied the impact of learning to code with AI on subsequent performance without AI, to measure the effects of overreliance on AI.
Jessica He
UX Designer at IBM Research, where she is a member of the Human-AI Collaboration team. Her work focuses on leveraging design to bridge the gap between user expectations and emerging AI technologies, encompassing topics including AI attribution, risk mitigation, and enhancing knowledge work.
Gonzalo Ramos
Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research at Redmond. He is part of the Human Centered AI and Experiences Group at Microsoft Research at Redmond, where he works at the intersection of HCI, Design, and AI to augment people's agencies and capabilities.
Advait Sarkar
Researcher at Microsoft, affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and honorary lecturer at University College London. He studies the effects of Generative AI on knowledge work, programming, and data analysis.
Yvonne Rogers
Professor of Interaction Design at University College London. A central theme of her work is concerned with designing AI that augments human cognition.
Hari Subramonyam
Assistant Professor (Research) at Stanford Graduate School of Education and Computer Science (by courtesy). He is also the Ram and Vijay Sriram Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. Subramonyam studies ways to augment human learning using AI by engaging in cognitively informed design practices.