Definition
Prior use of AI within a session raises the rate of later use and worsens calibration at the same time, so the belief and the behaviour reinforce each other.
What is at stake
It runs inside a single working session, which puts it on the scale of an afternoon rather than of months.
Where the word came from
- Automation biasMosier and Skitka, 1990s
- The crossover pointParasuraman and Manzey, 2010
- The session-level loopYu et al., 2026
How episcope came to it
Yu's experiments, measured at 44.5 percent later AI use after AI exposure against 27.7 percent after unaided exposure.
Papers behind it
Yu, S., Jurafsky, D., Hawkins, R. D., et al. (2026). The efficiency-gain illusion: People underestimate the rate of AI use and overestimate its benefits on simple tasks. arXiv:2605.22687.
PreprintPreprint. All tasks ran under five minutes.
Read next
The efficiency-gain illusionOverestimating what AI saved you, specifically for AI.Cognitive surrenderAccepting AI output with minimal scrutiny.Metacognitive lazinessDelegating the supervision rather than the task.
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