Relatively unintelligent individuals do not benefit from intentionally hindered learning: The role of desirable difficulties

Disfluency in English Language Teaching?

“…The motivation of having a challenge might be fun and encouraging for some learners, but not for others (e.g. Wenzel & Reinhard, 2019).…”

Tests and academic cheating: do learning tasks influence cheating by way of negative evaluations?

“…We also solely presented the usage of cheat sheets in examinations as the incantation of cheating behaviour; however, a far wider range of such behaviour does exist and should also be examined (e.g., inappropriate collaboration during exams or plagiarism). Additionally, until now, we focused completely on situational variables but not on individual variables, whereas previous studies showed that multiple trait variables, individual characteristics, and individual differences (e.g., cognitive abilities, conscientiousness, learning-goal orientations, self-control, or self-efficacy) are simultaneously influential for (difficult) learning (e.g., for perceptions or effectiveness's) and for cheating behaviour and dishonesty (e.g., Bertrams and Englert 2014;de Bruin and Rudnick 2007;Doménech-Betoret et al 2017;Finn and Frone 2004;Giluk and Postlethwaite 2015;Ikeda et al 2015;Koul 2012;Marcela 2015;Paulhus and Dubois 2015;Schunk 1996;Wenzel and Reinhard 2019a;Yu et al 2017; see also "Appendix B" regarding correlations among our dependent variables and the assessed but not analysed trait variables). Thus, we argue that it is beneficial for future work to include the assessment of individual differences.…”

“…In line with these concerns of lecturers, researchers also proposed that desirable difficulties are only beneficial for those individuals who can handle the needed increased effort, extended thought, and more elaborated and deeper processing, and for those who can correctly retrieve information and overcome the posed challenge (e.g., Alter et al 2013;Kaiser et al 2018;Kornell et al 2011;Oppenheimer and Alter 2014;Richland et al 2005;Rowland 2014). This, however, may not prove possible for everyone: Previous studies, for instance, showed that special requirements like higher previous knowledge, higher working memory capacity, higher intelligence, and higher reading ability are relevant skills for desirable difficulties to actually increase learning outcomes (e.g., Lehmann et al 2016;McDaniel et al 2002;McNamara et al 1996;Wenzel and Reinhard 2019a). Hence, it is argued that desirable difficulties are not beneficial for every learner.…”

“…Notably, apart from that, we assume that difficult tasks used in learning contexts could also result in further negative side-effects: For instance, difficult learning tasks can sometimes pose too much additional demand (regarding, for instance, cognitive capacities, processing capacities, cognitive effort, or working memory capacities) as well as too much cognitive load on the learner, especially concerning authentic and more complex tasks and high element interactivity information (this applies in particular to learners with less expertise; see e.g., Kalyuga et al 2001;Roelle and Berthold 2017;Sweller and Chandler 1994;van Gog and Sweller 2015;Wenzel and Reinhard 2019a). Because desirable difficulties are hard to solve and challenge learners' competence illusion and overconfidence (e.g., Bjork 1999), they are also assumed to reduce self-efficiency and to increase negative emotions, pressure, or fear of failure: Empirically, difficult tasks in general trigger perceptions of threat or anxiety and experiencing difficulties or giving incorrect answers feeds negatively into learners' self-perceptions (e.g., O'Neil et al 1969;Sarason and Sarason 1990;Schunk and Gaa 1981).…”

Learning With a Double-Edged Sword? Beneficial and Detrimental Effects of Learning Tests—Taking a First Look at Linkages Among Tests, Later Learning Outcomes, Stress Perceptions, and Intelligence

“…Such increased stress perceptions should have further detrimental effects on learning in general as well as on the beneficial effects of tests on long-term learning in specific (see, e.g., Seipp, 1991 ; Hinze and Rapp, 2014 ). Additionally, because recent studies indicated that higher intelligence is valuable for the effectiveness of tests (see, e.g., Minear et al, 2018 ; Wenzel and Reinhard, 2019 ), the present work also investigates if higher intelligence moderates the benefits of tests, thus serving as a prerequisite or boundary condition. In line with this, different previous studies indirectly supported the assumption that intelligence might also act as a buffer for negative effects of tests on immediate stress perceptions (see, e.g., LePine et al, 2004 ; Abín et al, 2020 ) and for the detrimental effects of stress perceptions on learning outcomes (see, e.g., Chuderski, 2014 ; Reeve et al, 2014 ).…”