Taking a Closer Look at the Desirability of Desirable Difficulties - Additionally Focusing on Required Prerequisites, Negative Side-Effects, and Negative Consequences

As the title of my dissertation already indicates, the main purpose of the following work was to take a closer, more thorough, and encompassing look at the desirability of desirable difficulties. The term desirable difficulties thereby subsumes varying types of difficult, demanding, and challenging learning strategies—like the application of (learning/practice) tests and generation tasks: Working on and successfully solving those difficult tasks requires more (cognitive) effort compared to working on easier learning tasks but thereby leads to increased learning outcomes after a delay. Due to these beneficial long-term learning effects, such difficulties are called desirable. Therefore, this dissertation focused on potential prerequisites determining learners’ (un-)favourable views of desirable difficulties and the benefits learners are able to reap through using desirable difficulties. Moreover, I also focused on negative side-effects and on further negative consequences that desirable difficulties may directly and indirectly cause. These important—and often related—issues must be thoroughly addressed before it is possible to give recommendations if, how, or for whom desirable difficulties can be applied. In addition, my dissertation should also be stimulating for further research, insofar as that it highlights relevant research issues that need to be addressed, that it presents open questions that require more empirical testing, and that it discusses potential implications for future work.