Redefining Human Intelligence in the Age of AI: Toward a Multidimensional Perspective on Cognitive, Creative, Social, and Embodied Intelligence
This special issue belongs to the section "The Intersection of Human and Artificial Intelligence".
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how humans learn, work, create, communicate, and solve problems. Advances in generative AI, intelligent tutoring systems, social robots, multimodal AI, and embodied AI have moved AI beyond a computational tool toward an active participant in human cognition and action, raising important questions about the nature, measurement, and development of human intelligence. This development raises a fundamental question: How should human intelligence be understood and developed when intelligent technologies increasingly participate in human thinking and behavior?
Traditional intelligence research has focused primarily on cognitive abilities such as reasoning, memory, and problem solving, often measured through psychometric approaches and standardized assessments. However, human intelligence is expressed through diverse forms of activity that extend beyond conventional cognitive performance. Creativity, social interaction, physical action, perceptual processing, emotional regulation, and embodied experience are also fundamental to how humans understand and respond to complex environments. The emergence of AI therefore provides an opportunity not only to examine how technology influences established cognitive abilities, but also to reconsider the nature, boundaries, development, and measurement of human intelligence. In education, these issues extend across STEM reasoning, creative and artistic learning, physical and motor development, and social–emotional development. At the same time, AI raises concerns about cognitive offloading, automation bias, metacognition, human agency, and intellectual autonomy.
This Special Issue aims to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of human intelligence in the age of AI, focusing on how AI may support, transform, challenge, or redefine cognitive, creative, social, and embodied intelligence. Special attention will be given to the conceptualization, assessment, measurement, and development of intelligence within human-AI ecosystems. It aligns with the Journal of Intelligence by examining the nature, development, assessment, and expression of intelligence while extending traditional individual-centered perspectives toward dynamic human–AI interactions.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:
- Hybrid and augmented intelligence
- Intelligence, human agency, and autonomy
- Automation bias and human judgment
- Human–AI co-creativity
- Generative AI and creative thinking
- Embodied cognition and embodied intelligence
- AI and higher-order thinking in STEM
- Social intelligence in human–AI interaction
- Social robots and intelligent agents
- Multimodal assessment of cognitive, creative, and embodied intelligence
- Intelligence assessment in AI-mediated environments
- Metacognition and self-regulated intelligence in AI-supported learning
- Longitudinal changes in intelligence in the AI era
- Ethical and theoretical foundations of intelligence augmentation
Original research articles, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, theoretical and methodological contributions, and interdisciplinary perspectives are welcome. We particularly encourage behavioral, psychometric, computational, neuroscientific, multimodal, longitudinal, and mixed-method research that advances understanding of how AI intersects with the development and transformation of human intelligence. Contributions addressing theoretical innovation, measurement validity, and methodological advances are especially welcome.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Huaqing Hong
Dr. Xinghua Wang
Dr. Qiyun Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Intelligence is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- artificial intelligence
- human intelligence
- human AI interaction
- cognitive intelligence
- social intelligence
- creative intelligence
- embodied intelligence
- human agency
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

