Delayed perceived task difficulty ratings relate more strongly to the relative difficulty of the more demanding items within a task set, consistent with delayed ratings being affected by the most demanding item¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2025 · checked against its sources 2026-10-21 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2028: tool and model accuracy changes quickly

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The four within-task difficulty categories differ significantly in relative item difficulty (Welch's F(3, 63.882) = 19.07, p ≤ 0.001), with most difficult items exceeding all other categories. → Schuessler 2025

Evidence¶

Schuessler 2025¶

Schuessler, K., Fischer, V., & Walpuski, M. (2025). Investigating construct validity of cognitive load measurement using single-item subjective rating scales. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-024-09692-6

q2 · i? · associational · r2

One-way ANOVA (Welch's F) over 30 four-item tasks comparing the easiest, rather easy, rather difficult, and most difficult item categories (30 items each, per Table 5). Only F and p are printed for this omnibus test.

"The results indicate a significant difference for the relative item difficulty of the four item categories, F(3, 63.882) = 19.07, p ≤ 0.001. Post-hoc tests (Bonferroni) revealed significant differences for relative item difficulty between the most difficult items and all other items (p = 0.005, most difficult items > rather difficult items, p ≤ 0.001, most difficult items > rather easy items, p ≤ 0.001, most difficult items > easiest items)."

Discussion¶

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