Paul Wilhelm Dierkes

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About

Paul Wilhelm Dierkes is a rising researcher at the intersection of educational psychology and human–technology interaction, with a primary focus on how students perceive and conceptualize emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. His most-cited work, "Free word association analysis of students' perception of artificial intelligence" (2025), has already garnered 2 citations—a notable early impact for a recent publication. In this study, Dierkes conducted a free word association test with 836 German high school students aged 10–20, capturing their associations with AI both before and after the release of ChatGPT. This work provides critical insights into how young learners’ mental models of AI evolve in response to real-world technological shifts, offering educators and policymakers a data-driven foundation for designing AI literacy curricula. By combining quantitative analysis with qualitative association mapping, Dierkes demonstrates a methodological rigor that bridges cognitive science and applied education. His research is particularly timely, addressing the urgent need to understand how adolescents form perceptions of transformative technologies. As a scholar committed to exploring the cognitive and social dimensions of AI in education, Dierkes is poised to make lasting contributions to how we prepare future generations for an AI-driven world.