Psychological associations between perceived generative AI-supported learning and creative design performance in vocational design education: a within-course correlational study

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly used in design courses, but evidence remains limited on how students' appraisal of such support co-varies with domain cognition, creative confidence, engagement, and independently assessed creative work. This within-course correlational study examined within-course change and theory-specified contemporaneous associations in a 72-h Furniture Appreciation and Selection course involving 150 vocational design students in China. Sustainable design cognition and creative self-efficacy were measured before and after the course; perceived GenAI-supported learning and learning engagement were measured after it; and final creative design performance was rated independently by three experts. Paired-samples t tests described within-course change. Item-level CFA preceded the score-level association analyses, while standardized composite-score ordinary least squares models and 10,000-resample percentile bootstrap confidence intervals summarized theory-specified post-course associations and coefficient products. Sustainable design cognition increased from 3.326 to 3.792, t (149) = 10.362, p