Cognitive Crutch or Cattellian Catapult? Technology Use and Human Capital Formation

Technology can substitute for internal cognition, reducing investment through disuse of internal abilities, or complement it by amplifying learning capacity. This paper develops a dynamic model of human capital formation in which individuals allocate cognitive effort between internal reasoning and external technological support. It suggests that which mode predominates depends on the curvature of returns to human capital: diminishing returns induce cognitive offloading, while convex returns generate path-dependent amplification. The main implication is that technological change widens dispersion in cognitive outcomes across individuals and environments rather than simply shifting mean cognitive capacity.