As the adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) increases rapidly among students, typically for academic tasks, understanding its implications becomes increasingly important. This paper aims to identify the negative impacts on cognitive aspects, particularly among higher education students, primarily when they rely on GenAI tools for academic purposes. There are 25 studies included in this paper using Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) as methods and guidelines in this study, respectively. This paper suggests that besides the positive impacts expected by using GenAI tools, excessive utilization may result in negative impacts on students’ overall cognitive skills, including a decline in cognitive effort, engagement, laziness, procrastination, decision-making ability, and confidence. Moreover, this paper serves as a reference for future research to avoid harmful impacts in developing GenAI tools for education and to support policymakers in making further regulations towards the use of GenAI in the educational sphere.