The LOGOS Framework: A Five-Level Taxonomy of Human Cognitive Agency in AI-Assisted Assessment

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in higher education has produced a critical governance gap. While 95% of university students globally report using AI in assessed work (HEPI & Kortext, 2026), fewer than 20% of institutions have formal AI policies (Coursera, 2026). In Mexico, the ANUIES-OIIAES National Survey confirms that more than 80% of students use GenAI while 76% of public-university faculty report no institutional framework (SEP & ANUIES-OIIAES, 2025). Existing assessment frameworks—Finland’s ARENE Traffic Light (2023) and the AI Assessment Scale (Perkins et al., 2024)—address permission levels but do not account for the qualitative nature of human cognitive engagement during AI-assisted tasks. This paper introduces the LOGOS Framework, a five-level taxonomy of human cognitive agency developed at Universidad Anáhuac México and grounded in a humanist account of the person, reason, and cognitive agency. The five levels—Lone, Operated, Guided, Orchestrated, and Systemic—describe qualitatively distinct modes of cognitive relationship between the student and AI, ranging from full autonomy to critical systemic analysis of AI as object of study. Each level is grounded in canonical traditions: Vygotskian mediation, distributed cognition (Hutchins), Bakhtinian dialogism, metacognition (Flavell), computational thinking (Wing), and critical algorithm studies. The framework operationalizes the Vatican’s Antiqua et nova (2025) directive that AI must complement rather than replace human intelligence. Through theoretical synthesis, the paper introduces a new unit of analysis—cognitive agency—distinct from the permission logic of ARENE and the presence scale of AIAS, and contributes the original Systemic level, where AI becomes the object of academic study. LOGOS offers one of the first AI assessment frameworks for Latin American higher education grounded in a humanist account of cognitive agency, developed within the humanist Christian tradition of Universidad Anáhuac México but portable across secular, public, private, and faith-based institutional contexts, with concrete applications across Communication Studies and a roadmap for empirical validation in 2026.