Training Undergraduate Psychology Students in AI-Supported Scientific Writing in a Research Methods Course

Undergraduate psychology research methods courses offer a foundational opportunity for students to learn scientific writing, yet many students find these courses challenging and are not uniformly successful in acquiring writing skills. Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) holds promise as a pedagogical support for emerging writing skills. Thus, the current study examined whether providing undergraduate students with in-class training on how to use GenAI for scientific writing improves their grades on scientific writing assignments and self-efficacy when writing. One section of a psychology research methods course was provided with weekly in-class GenAI training (GenAI condition), and the other section was not given any training (Control condition). An examination of students’ grades on two research papers (Papers 1 and 2) revealed no significant differences between conditions, but students in the Control condition significantly improved their grades across time, whereas students in the GenAI condition remained stable. Students’ writing self-efficacy did not vary by condition or time. Students’ perceptions of GenAI improved from pre- to post-course but did not differ by condition. Overall, in-class GenAI training did not improve writing performance beyond standard instruction, but we highlight future directions for potentially more effective GenAI training.