From Classroom to Real World: Psychology Students Research AI's Impact on Child Development

Six years ago, Psychology Professor Pilyoung Kim began wondering how emerging artificial intelligence (AI) would impact children’s emotional and social development, a largely unexplored research frontier at the time. A renowned leader in studying how early-life experiences affect children’s brain development, Kim established the BAIC (Brain, Artificial Intelligence, and Child) research center at the University of Denver to find out.

In one study currently under review for publication, Kim and undergraduate and graduate research assistants brought kindergarteners and parents into the lab to converse with ChatGPT to co-create a story. Researchers compared brain activity in children who independently cocreated with the chatbot, those who cocreated with their parent, and those who collaborated with their parent and ChatGPT to tell a story together. 

Children cocreating independently showed heightened brain activity. “Alone with the chatbot, children were more likely to think the chatbot was human-like,” Kim explained. “The brain region involved in understanding other people’s minds was much more highly activated.”

The takeaway? “Young children’s brains must work very hard to interact with ChatGPT, but having parents there really helps smooth out those interactions,” Kim said. If ChatGPT didn’t understand what the child was saying, for example, the parent would suggest another way to say it. 

“It seems like having parents there is very important in coregulating the interaction because children can get frustrated or overwhelmed when interacting with ChatGPT alone.” 

This study helped Kim’s research assistants gain “valuable hands-on experience in how to work and interact with AI and each have different opportunities for testing new AI tools.” They have been analyzing children’s creativity levels when interacting with AI under different conditions and assembling a manual on their findings to make them available through the center.

Student Kristina Kealoha benefited from Kim’s mentorship as a CAHSS psychology undergrad and joined Kim’s study as a research assistant after starting a master’s degree program in forensic psychology in fall 2025.

 “This project has enhanced my problem-solving and critical thinking skills while teaching me to adapt quickly in a new and rapidly developing research space,” she said. 

She hopes to channel what she’s learning about AI toward "prioritizing healthy development, safety, and long-term impact, especially among marginalized and vulnerable populations” into a career in the legal, judicial, or corrections field. 

Researchers have begun recruiting participants for a follow-up study on the benefits and risks of interacting with AI in children with social communication difficulties, including neurodivergence. They also plan to examine the effects of generative AI on youth and middle-school students to address “growing concerns about the risks of chatbots being too human-like and relational,” Kim said. 

She hopes student research assistants will gain essential insights and skills to carry with them “as they go on to build careers as educators involved in AI literacy or as clinicians in designing treatments based on promoting AI safety and ethics.” 

Helping provide children with “the environment to have a safe and happy childhood” continues to inspire Kim to dig ever deeper.

 “I want to bring something that I already know about children’s brain development to the evolution of AI technologies and train people on how to use them responsibly.”

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences students can find out more about hands-on research opportunities in the Department of Psychology here. Department of Psychology Spring quarter courses are now available. 

Note: Since joining CAHSS’ psychology department 14 years ago, Pilyoung Kim and her team of student research assistants have conducted cutting-edge projects examining the long-term impact of socioeconomic factors like poverty on prenatal, infant, and parental brain adjustment. They also continue to study the effects of prenatal cannabis exposure on infant and parental brains.