AI Support in R Coding: Effects on Psychology Students’ Self-Efficacy

Students struggle with coding in R, often resulting in low R-associated self-efficacy. Given the rise of AI, we examined in five seminars whether AI boosted self-efficacy of 57 students compared to a prior session. However, we found no significant increase in R-associated self-efficacy. Of 11 exploratory analyses we found in one analysis an unexpected result that we interpreted as disappointed expectations. This result underlines the importance to effectively handle students’ expectations and experiences when using AI.