Chen et al. - 2018 - Undesirable difficulty effects in the learning of high-element interactivity materials

referenceArchiveUUID: "d03e1941-179f-409b-90a3-bd85feef8156"
fullTitle: "Undesirable difficulty effects in the learning of high-element interactivity materials"
authors: ["Ouhao Chen","Juan C. Castro-Alonso","Fred Paas","John Sweller"]

Theoretical summary integrating recent studies demonstrating a failure of the Testing effect and Generation effect in situations where Element interactivity is high. They extrapolate to suggest that Desirable difficulties, after Bjork in general may be undesirable when element interactivity is high, by reasoning in terms of Cognitive load theory and working memory availability. This logic may also explain the Worked example effect.

See e.g. van Gog & Sweller - 2015 - Not New, but Nearly Forgotten for a review of the broader issue being explored here.

Senior author: John Sweller