Extended executive cognition, a learning outcome for the AI age

Abstract

Artificial intelligence fundamentally transforms professional expertise across disciplines, creating an expanding gap between higher education curricula and emerging workplace practices. This paper introduces "Extended Executive Cognition" as a critical learning outcome for the AI age, the ability to strategically allocate cognitive effort, coordinate AI-assisted tasks, and manage hybrid intelligence problem-solving. Drawing on curriculum theory, executive function psychology, and distributed cognition research, we argue that post-educational success increasingly depends on metacognitive skills for human-AI collaboration rather than traditional academic competencies. Extended Executive Cognition requires developing accurate mental models of AI capabilities and limitations to enable effective task delegation. The framework presented offers concrete curriculum integration strategies across general education and discipline-specific contexts, including assessment approaches that capture metacognitive development rather than mere product evaluation. By reconceptualizing learning outcomes around cognitive orchestration rather than content production, universities can prepare graduates for continuous technological evolution while preserving distinctly human capacity as education's central value.