In the digital intelligence era, psychology education faces challenges and requires transformation to cultivate adaptable and interdisciplinary talents. This paper proposes two models to guide this change.

For knowledge-oriented psychology education, a “loop model” is introduced. Based on the self-regulation theory, it divides the learning process into five components: knowledge acquisition, comparator, standard, assessment, and pass. AI can play an important role in each part. For example, as a digital teaching assistant in knowledge acquisition, it breaks through time and space limitations; in setting standards, it enables personalised teaching plans.

Regarding research-oriented psychology education, a “chimeric research” framework is presented. It divides AI-psychology research into “AI for psychology” and “AI of psychology”. The former uses AI to enhance traditional psychological research methods, like accelerating literature reviews and improving hypothesis testing. The latter treats AI as a research subject, exploring how it impacts different sub-fields of psychology.

Overall, these models, guided by outcome-based education theory, aim to cultivate students into problem-solvers. Although the educational revolution is in its infancy, these ideas offer a new perspective on psychology education reform in the digital intelligence era.

The work titled “Teaching Psychology in Era of Digital Intelligence: The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Knowledge-Oriented and Research-Oriented Education”, was published on Frontiers of Digital Education (published on March 20, 2025).