{"id":13973,"date":"2022-03-15T12:19:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T20:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=13973"},"modified":"2022-04-01T01:56:51","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T09:56:51","slug":"desirable-difficulties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/15\/desirable-difficulties\/","title":{"rendered":"Desirable Difficulties: When Harder is Better for Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key strategy for getting better at things is hill-climbing. The idea is simple: try different things, keep doing the things that work, stop doing those that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The strategy is named because you can envision it as finding the highest spot in a landscape filled with fog. You can\u2019t necessarily see the highest point, but you can always walk uphill.<\/p>\n

Most of the time, this approach works fairly well. It likely explains how we get better at many things simply by doing them repeatedly. Where this strategy runs into trouble, however, is when you need to do something worse before you can do it better.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, learning itself seems to be one of these situations. The actions that improve your short-term performance on a task don\u2019t always create much long-term improvement. Since short-term effects are easier to notice, this can create a trap. Students choose strategies that make them feel like they\u2019re learning the material but fail miserably when the exam comes.<\/p>\n

Psychologist Robert Bjork addresses this issue by calling for desirable difficulties<\/a>: actions that appear to work worse in the short-term but work better in the long run. These include:<\/p>\n

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  1. Spacing<\/strong>. Imagine you have to choose between practicing something ten times in a row vs. ten times spaced out (over hours or days). The first feels easier\u2014you will perform better immediately after practice. The second is harder but results in more permanent memory. Yet students avoid spacing, in part, because it feels like it doesn\u2019t work as well as cramming.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Variability<\/strong>. Say you\u2019re learning tennis shots. Should you perfect your forehand swing before moving onto the backhand? Or mix both up at the same time? Intuition argues for mastering one thing before moving onto the next, but research suggests otherwise. Variable practice tends to result in better retention and transfer than blocked practice.<\/li>\n
  3. Testing<\/strong>. Should you re-read or do practice questions? Students overwhelmingly favor re-reading as a learning strategy. However, practice testing is one of the most effective learning methods that has been systematically studied, while re-reading is one of the worst.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    What Makes Difficulties Desirable?<\/h2>\n
    \nListen to this article<\/small>
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