Task complexity and desirable difficulties do not significantly affect intrinsic interest or expectancies for success¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r? · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Neither factor nor their interaction significantly affected intrinsic interest or expectancies for success, contrary to hypotheses 3.1–3.6. → Ines Zeitlhofer 2026

Evidence¶

Ines Zeitlhofer 2026¶

Ines Zeitlhofer, Joerg Zumbach. (2026). Germane processes moderate the effectiveness of complex desirable difficulty tasks. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-026-09807-1

q3 · i? · causal · r?

The RQ3 MANOVA on post-intervention intrinsic interest and expectancies for success found "no significant multivariate main effect of complexity" or desirable difficulty, and no interaction; univariate tests were likewise non-significant. Equivalence was not tested.

"The analysis revealed no significant multivariate main effect of complexity ( F (2, 126) = 1.15, p = .32, η² = 0.02), or of desirable difficulty ( F (2,126) = 0.22, p = .80, η² = 0.003). The interaction between complexity and desirable difficulty was also not significant at the multivariate level (F (2,126) = 1.26, p = .29, η² = 0.02)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Linguistically varying an instructional video into easy, moderate, and difficult versions does not significantly affect students’ expectancies of success or intrinsic task value compared with the moderate version — related
• The interaction of complexity and desirable difficulty does not significantly affect posttest performance — related
• Under linguistically difficult instruction, higher language ability is associated with lower expectancies of success — the opposite direction of the hypothesized moderation — related
• Task complexity and task difficulty are distinct concepts — related
• Task complexity has no significant impact on intrinsic interest — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Task complexity has a strong omnibus multivariate effect on performance, GCL, meta-awareness, and intrinsic interest combined — reports the opposite