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

Intelligence is an important predictor of long-term learning and academic achievement. In two studies we focused on the relation among intelligence, desirable difficulties–active generation/production of information and taking tests–, and long-term learning. We hypothesized that intelligence is positively correlated to long-term learning and that difficult learning situations, as opposed to easier reading, increase later long-term learning. We further assumed that the beneficial effects of difficult learning would be moderated by intelligence, thus, we supposed the positive effects to be stronger for learners with higher intelligence and weaker for learners with lower intelligence. We in turn conducted two experiments (N1 = 149, N2 = 176, respectively), measured participants' intelligence, applied desirable difficulties–generation/testing–in contrast to control tasks, and later assessed long-term learning indicated by delayed final test performance. Both studies showed positive correlations between intelligence and later long-term learning. Study 2 further found the expected beneficial effect of difficult learning, which was also moderated by intelligence. There was no difference between difficult tasks and control tasks for participants with relatively low intelligence. Retrieving answers in learning tests was, however, beneficial for participants with average intelligence and even more beneficial for participants with higher intelligence. In general, our two experiments highlight the importance of intelligence for complex and challenging learning tasks that are supposed to stimulate deeper encoding and more cognitive processing. Thus, specifically learners with higher, or at least average, intelligence should be confronted with difficulties to increase long-term learning and test performance.