Talk:Desirable difficulty

There is currently no wikipedia article devoted to desirable difficulties. This is an important topic in memory research that comes up again and again in different contexts. Various other wiki pages on memory research topics briefly mention desirable difficulties, but do not go into detail. This page will serve as a centralized location for information about desirable difficulties. (Psy250 jes85 (talk) 13:44, 18 April 2016 (UTC))[reply]

Outline

The plan for the structure of the page is as follows:

Lead section: summary and description of what desirable difficulties are, why they are important, and maybe mention a few examples.

Main section: break it down into various sections that each describe a specific common example of a desirable difficulty, providing some information about it and a link to the wiki page on that topic. Examples of this include the Testing Effect and the Spacing. Psy250 jes85 (talk) 13:48, 18 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think you have a great outline for this section. Perhaps some of the examples you can include are with the photo experiment (massed vs. spaced practice) and administering cumulative exams in classes. Also, you can link this page to the Spacing Effect and Testing Effect pages. Ashley (talk) 17:34, 18 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

First, well done taking this upon yourself to create this page from scratch! I'm interested in the specific section headings you are planning on including. It would definitely be worth while to cite some of the original research and discuss the evolution of the theory and how it has broadened it's applications over time. Adding an "Implications" section in order to give it real-world context would be helpful for readers who just skim the page. KieraMolloy18 (talk) 15:17, 19 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Adding a new page for this is a great idea. You could also turn it into a self-help page for students on learning how to study/learn. I would try and get this page linked/involved onto other major educational/learning pages (study skills - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_skills, the improving section of memorization - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorization, ect.) I would also make sure to add as many experiments that deal with these concepts as you can in order to gain credibility. As you probably know, our class notes are a great place to find some of the results to these major findings. Make sure to add the methods for the experiments you describe as the conceptualization of some of these sections are important for defining the sub-terms. Next, I'm not really sure how much information there is based on the history of desirable difficulties or who coined the term but it may be worth looking into. My guess is that some of these have been around for a very very long time. Also, make sure you mention feedback in the testing effect. Lastly, make sure you explain why desirable difficulties are important and "desirable".